EUROBASKET QUALIFIERS

Chavdar Kostov scored a game-high 33 points for Bulgaria

Bulgaria's EuroBasket qualification chances may be out of their hands, but they are still doing everything in their power as demonstrated by a big 120-95 win over Luxembourg.

Bulgaria still need Germany to beat Azerbaijan or Luxembourg to upset Sweden on Tuesday just to claim third place in Group B - and they would then be relying on results in other groups to see if they go through.

But they at least finished knowing they had done all they could in their final game as Chavdar Kostov poured in 33 points to lead six players scoring in double figures.

They did not always defend well, allowing the winless Luxembourg to score 52 points in the first half, but they stormed to the finish with 64 second half points overwhelming the visitors.

The hosts started on an 18-7 charge but never put Luxembourg away in the first half.

The visitors kept in touch and took a shock lead late in the first half when Christopher Jones made it 49-47 with a lay-up.

Samy Picard's three made it 52-49 to Luxembourg but Ivan Lilov tied it and another three from Aleksandar Georgiev had Bulgaria 56-52 up at the break.

They then began the third quarter on a charge, with a 9-0 spurt making it 70-56 on Bozhidar Avramov's dunk.

And they only continued to pull away as Luxembourg's challenge faded.

Lilov finished with 16 points, Pavel Marinov had 14, Martin Durchev 13, Nikolay Varbanov 11 and Filip Fidenov 10.

Jones and Picard led Luxembourg with 21 points each, Pitt Koster and Raul Birenbaum adding 13.