The Bulgarian national men's basketball team defeated Norway 88:57 (27:10, 25:17, 22:12, 14:18) as the host at "Arena Botevgrad" in their last match from group "B" in the first stage of the preliminary qualifications for the 2029 European Championship.
The success allowed the national team to displace the Norwegians from the first place in the group with 3 wins and 1 loss, which ensured their passage to the next phase of the pre-qualifications.
The head coach Lyubomir Minchev chose the big stars of Bulgarian basketball Alexander Vezenkov, Yordan Minchev, Konstantin Toshkov, Borislav Mladenov and Ivan Alipiev to start in the starting lineup.
The Bulgarians played an excellent first half, imposing control over the match from the very beginning. By the middle of the first half, the national team was already leading 23:4, and after 10 minutes of play their lead was 27:10. By the break, the difference increased to over 20 points, and in the middle of the second period after a basket and a free throw by Vezenkov, the Bulgarian team pulled ahead by 37:14 and at the end of the first half the score was 52:27.
After the break, the national team continued to dominate and, led by Alexander Vezenkov, took a 35-point lead at 74:39 before the last period. In the remaining time, the match was played out, and the Bulgarians calmly fulfilled their main goal - a victory by over 10 points.
Vezenkov finished as the most productive player with 22 points, 6 rebounds and 1 assist. Borislav Mladenov contributed 15 points, 4 rebounds and 1 assist, Aleksandar Stoimenov added 13 points and 3 rebounds, and Konstantin Toshkov chipped in with 10 points, 4 rebounds and 8 assists.
For Norway, Ludwig Bergseng scored 10 points.
The EuroBasket 2029 qualifiers, which began in November last year, will end in February 2029 and will determine the 20 teams that will join the four co-hosts of the championship - Estonia, Greece, Slovenia and Spain.
The pre-qualifications take place in three stages, with the best eight teams continuing to the actual playoffs, and from the first stage onwards, the winners of the three groups (including Bulgaria) and the best fourth-place team qualify. These four teams will join eight others who have qualified for next year's World Cup. The 12 teams will be divided into three groups of four, with the group winners qualifying for the main qualifiers.
The remaining eight teams will have to go through a third stage of pre-qualifications, where they will be joined by the six teams from the first phase who missed out on the second stage. They will be divided into four groups, with the winners earning a place in the main qualifiers.