Slovenia reaches second round of 2027 EuroBasket Women qualifiers

The Slovenian women's national basketball team has made it to the second round of qualifying for the 2027 EuroBasket, which will take place in June next year.

The second round of qualifiers starts in November before concluding with the final window in February 2027, CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.

Slovenia, who are currently 23rd on the FIBA women's world ranking, played in the first round in Group B with the Netherlands, Latvia and Estonia, all of which are ranked lower.

They recorded four victories and two losses to rank second in their group and remain in the running for a spot at EuroBasket Women 2027. If they end up qualifying for the tournament, this will be their sixth consecutive EuroBasket appearance. Their best result is ninth place at last year's tournament.

Slovenia opened their qualifying campaign last November by defeating Latvia 77:66 at home and Estonia 87:65 on the road, and then losing to the Netherlands 76:86, also on the road.

The qualifiers continued on 11 March, with Slovenia losing to Latvia 53:79 in Riga and then beating Estonia by 30 points at home on 14 March to take the matters into their own hands and improve their position before the decisive return match against the Netherlands.

In front of the home crowd at Kodeljevo Arena on 17 March, Slovenia defeated the opponent 97:80 to punch the ticket to the second round of qualifiers.

The match did not start well for Slovenia, as the guests had an 8-point lead after the first quarter, but the home team turned the things around in the second quarter, going to the half-time break with a 2-point lead and never trailed from that point on.

Slovenia were boosted by the return of naturalised American Jessica Shepard, who led all scorers in the team with 22 points, with Zala Friškovec adding 20 points and Eva Lisec 19 points. Captain Teja Oblak sat out the game due to injury.

Slovenia head coach David Gaspar, who hails from Hungary, said that it was a "great team performance" and that his players showed in the second half the defensive effort he wanted to see.

"Slovenia have great potential, although we didn't play every match in the first part of the qualifiers at the same pace."

It was a "tough match from the first to the last minute," Friškovec said.

"I think we showed a certain quality in these first six matches, but we can definitely play much better with a full squad," he added.

In addition to Slovenia, Latvia and the Netherlands also advanced to the second round, which will feature 24 teams in six groups. The top two teams from each group will join the hosts Belgium, Finland, Sweden and Lithuania to form the field of 16 teams at FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2027.

Photo: Basketball Federation of Slovenia (KZS)