Latvia Seal Eurobasket Place

Point guard Janis Strelnieks led a balanced Latvia offense with 13 points in the away victory that secured his nation a place at EuroBasket 2013

Latvia secured a place at EuroBasket 2013 with an 85-77 victory at Romania in their final Qualification Round game.

The victory sees Latvia improve to a 5-3 record in Group D, and they will go to Slovenia as one of the best third-placed teams of the Qualification Round.

Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia had clinched earlier first and second place respectively.

A strong start set up Latvia for victory as they scored nine unanswered points  and moved 12-1 up on Janis Strelnieks' three-pointer, less than three minutes into the game.

A three from Edgars Jeromanovs late in the first quarter made it 27-14 to put Latvia in complete control.

The continued to pull away in the second quarter, with a lay-up from Martins Meiers making it 36-19.

But Romania, already eliminated from contention, were not going to make it so easy for Latvia on their home turf, and they responded with a 10-0 run, closing it to 36-29 on Mihail-Octavian Paul's lay-up.

Latvia got it back to a double-digit lead and led 44-34 on a three-pointer from Davis Bertans at half-time, but Romania opened up the third quarter with a 6-0 spurt that closed it to 44-40 on Mihai Silvasan's jump-shot.

Latvia were able to resist, however, and began to ease away once more, leading 65-54 on a jump shot from Meiers to end the third quarter.

Jeromanovs' three made it 70-56 early in the fourth, and although Romania finished strongly, they could not catch up.

Strelnieks led Latvia with 14 points while Kaspars Berzins had 13, the Bertans brothers 11 each and Meiers 11 also.

Silvasan led Romania with 19 points while Catalin Baciu added 14, Paul and Rares Mandache 10 apiece.

Quotes Romania vs. Latvia

Latvia head coach Ainars Bagatskis
"We are a very young team, we are looking like an U22 team and probably we are the youngest team in Europe. Before starting the qualification I said that we want six victories. Some of my friends told me that I am crazy, but look, if we had beaten Georgia at home we would have achieved that goal. Some experienced coaches from my country said that we don't have any chance to qualify, but we kept working all summer and we reached our goal to be at the EuroBasket. We start playing better and better. It was a very tough group. Regarding tonight's game we expected to have a hard game in Romania. They played relaxed and it is very dangerous. For sure Vlad Moldoveanu is the leader of the Romanian team and I think that in a few years he will be a great player."

Romania head coach Mladen Ostojic
"After the first game against the Netherlands, this was our best game. Latvia is a good team and I think that in the future they can make big surprises. It was a big honour for me to prepare the national team of Romania and I really believe that. I want to thank my players and I hope that in the future they will have great results."

Latvia player Janis Strelnieks
"We did everything to win this game. It was a difficult game, because the Romanian team wanted to end the qualification with a victory. We expected to have such a tough game at Sibiu. We saw other results and we knew that it is difficult to play here. Now I am very happy that we won."

Romania player Mihai Silvasan
"We knew that Latvia is a very young and ambitious team. They have good players and also play very aggressively on defence. We expected to have a tough game, we lost bad at Riga and we wanted to make a surprise at home. It was not our night, but I am happy that all our players are not injured or something like that. I want to congratulate the national team of Latvia and to wish them good look in the future."