Georgia loses game, and wins a FIBA World Cup berth anyway

Georgia lost, and then celebrated. Iceland won, and was devastated. One of the last Basketball World Cup spots went to Georgia on Sunday — even though it lost to Iceland 80-77 in the final Europe Region qualifying game for both teams. Iceland needed to win by four points or more to win a tiebreaker over Georgia for the World Cup berth. It came up one point short. Both teams finished qualifying with 5-5 records, with the tiebreaker going to Georgia by the slimmest of margins. Iceland had a 3-point try by Elvar Fridriksson — its best shooter — rim out with about 3 seconds remaining, and Georgia held on for the loss that really was a win. “Amazing. I’m so happy, man,” said Georgia’s Thaddus McFadden, a Michigan-born guard who played at the junior college and Division II levels before embarking on what’s now a 14-year pro career overseas. “I may mess around and cry. This means so much to everybody. I’m just so happy.”

WHAT A FINISH!

Just one solitary point decided a ticket to the World Cup and it was jubilation for Georgia heartbreak for Iceland

Watch live games + extended highlightshttps://t.co/yr2cvyXDoL J9#FIBAWC x #WinForGeorgia pic.twitter.com/LCig9dYp1w

— FIBA Basketball World Cup (@FIBAWC) February 26, 2023

Georgia beat Iceland by three points in a qualifying game in November. For Iceland to have advanced, it needed to win by four to claim the head-to-head tiebreaker; Georgia held other tiebreakers, and those were its ticket to the World Cup. “Fought to the very end and if you told me before the game or at the start of these 10-game qualifications that it would come down to one shot by our best shooter, then I would take it,” Iceland coach Craig Pedersen said. “But it was a couple of centimeters off. And