Macedonia national basketball team

The Macedonian national basketball team (Macedonian: Кошаркарска репрезентациjа на Македониjа / Košarkarska reprezentacija na Makedonija) represents Macedonia in international basketball. It competes in FIBA tournaments as the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, often abbreviated to F.Y.R. of Macedonia.^[2] The Macedonian national basketball team is run by the Basketball Federation of Macedonia, the governing body of basketball in Macedonia, which was created in 1992 and joined FIBA in 1993. Prior to 1993, Macedonia was part of the Yugoslavia national basketball team.

Roster

 Macedonia

Depth Chart

History

Before 1993, Macedonian players represented the Yugoslav national basketball team in international basketball.

Eurobasket 1999

After qualifying for Eurobasket 1999, the Macedonian national basketball team failed to pass the group stage and ended up ranked 14th overall.

Eurobasket 2009

After qualifying for Eurobasket 2009, the Macedonian national basketball team was placed in Group A, along with Greece, Croatia and Israel. Macedonia began the tournament with a heavy 54–86 loss to rivals Greece, but rebounded with a 82–79 victory over Israel. Despite dropping their last game against Croatia, the Israel result was enough to secure second round qualification. In the second round, Macedonia was placed in Group E alongside France, Germany and Russia. Macedonia lost to France in the second round opener, but famously defeated Germany in the next game. Against Russia, Macedonia was narrowly defeated by a score of 69–71. This performance was not enough to secure a berth in the knockout round. Nevertheless, Macedonia considers this as a historic success for the national team, since it was only the country's second appearance in Eurobasket and the team advanced past the first round. In the final tournament rankings, Macedonia ranked 9th place with a record of 2–4.

Eurobasket 2011

Through the qualifying round, Macedonia qualified for Eurobasket 2011 and was in Group C along with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, and Finland in the preliminary round. The team lost their first game to Montenegro (65–70) in overtime but won the remaining four against Croatia (78–76), Greece (72–58), Finland (72–70), and Bosnia and Herzegovina (75–63). Macedonia finished first in the group and advanced to the second round.

In the second round, Macedonia was in Group F with Russia, Slovenia, Greece, Georgia, and Finland. Having beaten Greece and Finland in the preliminary round, Macedonia went into the second round with a 2–0 record. After beating Georgia (65–63), Macedonia qualified for the knockout round. The team then beat Slovenia (68–59), but lost to Russia by 2 points (63–61) after Sergey Monya made a buzzer-beating shot to win the final game of the second round. Macedonia, therefore, finished second in Group F.

For the first time in the team's history, it reached the knockout round where it defeated host country Lithuania (67–65) by 2 points in the quarterfinals. Macedonia then lost to Spain (92–80) in the semifinals. They lost to Russia in the third place game (68–72) and finished in fourth place.

Eurobasket 2013

By participating at the 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament, Macedonia has qualified for EuroBasket 2013 in Slovenia.

References

External links

• Basketball Federation Of Macedonia (Official Website)
• Macedonia National Basketball Team Page On FIBA Europe