The Ukrainian national basketball team secured one of the most important victories of the current season. In the penultimate round of the 2027 World Cup qualifiers, the Ukrainians convincingly crushed the Georgian national team with a score of 95:76. This victory was decisive: it allowed the team of coach Ainars Bagatskis to guarantee their advancement to the second stage of the qualifying tournament in advance.
Return of the leader and seizing the initiative
The main event of the evening was the return of Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk to the national team roster. In his first official match since returning, he didn't just play; he put on a real show on the court. Already in the first quarter, the Ukrainians seized the initiative, taking a 17:10 lead. Despite attempts by the Georgian team to narrow the gap, the first period remained with the home team — 30:27.
In the second quarter, the Ukrainian national team demonstrated significant growth in defense and reliability. The team increased their lead to +17 points and went into the halftime break with a comfortable 8-point margin. However, the third quarter played the truly decisive role. In this segment, the Ukrainians completely shut out their opponent, extending their lead to a maximum of +23 points and ending the period with a score of 75:60.
Match results and statistics
In the final quarter, the Ukrainian team skillfully maintained the pace, giving the opponent no chance for a comeback, and secured the final crushing victory — 95:76. The undisputed hero of the match was Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk. He scored a fantastic 28 points, grabbed 5 rebounds, and dished out 4 assists. He made three three-pointers and had a perfect record from the free-throw line (7 out of 7).
Aleksandr Kovliar provided strong support to the leader, recording 20 points. On the Georgian side, Marquis Reed was the top scorer with 18 points, but his efforts were not enough to save the match.
Tournament standings and prospects
Thanks to this victory, Ukraine earned 8 points and guaranteed themselves a place in the top three of Group A. These are the teams that advance to the second stage of the qualifiers, where direct tickets to the World Cup will be contested. It is important to note that the results of the first round are fully carried over to the next stage. Earlier, Spain and Georgia secured their participation in the second stage from our group.
The situation in the group was tense: the standings forced the Ukrainians to play exclusively for a win, especially after two defeats against the group favorite — the Spanish national team — in the March qualifying window. Currently, Spain remains the leader of Group A (8 points after 4 matches), Ukraine is second (8 points, 5 matches), Georgia is in third place (6 points, 5 matches), and Denmark rounds out the table with 4 points.
The Ukrainians will play their final match of the first qualifying stage against the Danish national team this Sunday, July 5. The match will start at 16:00 Kyiv time. Earlier, it was reported that Ukrainian national team basketball player Maksym Klychko switched from the top European league to the US championship, which also became a notable event in the life of Ukrainian basketball.