The 1957 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 1957, was the tenth FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship, held by FIBA Europe.FIBA EuroBasket 1957 Sixteen national teams affiliated with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) entered the competition. The competition was hosted by Bulgaria. Vasil Levski National Stadium in Sofia was the location of the event.
Results Preliminary round In the preliminary round, the 16 teams were split up into four groups of four teams each. The top two teams in each group advanced to the final round to play for the first 8 places, while the bottom two were sent to the classification round to play for 9th through 16th.
Group A RankTeamPtsWLPFPADiff 1. 630273142+131 2. 521244175+69 3. 412148259−111 4. 303136225−89
Czechoslovakia123 – 44ScotlandAlbania57 – 89YugoslaviaYugoslavia94 – 39ScotlandCzechoslovakia71 – 37AlbaniaScotland65 – 42AlbaniaCzechoslovakia79 – 61Yugoslavia
Group B RankTeamPtsWLPFPADiff 1. 630270158+112 2. 521188171+17 3. 412179192−13 4. 303133249−116
Soviet Union107 – 38AustriaPoland55 – 50TurkeyTurkey80 – 57AustriaSoviet Union83 – 71PolandAustria38 – 62PolandSoviet Union80 – 49Turkey
Group C RankTeamPtsWLPFPADiff 1. 630239155+84 2. 521196165+31 3. 412177185−8 4. 303149256−107
Bulgaria67 – 52FranceWest Germany52 – 73ItalyBulgaria72 – 45ItalyFrance83 – 39West GermanyItaly59 – 61FranceBulgaria100 – 58West Germany
Group D RankTeamPtsWLPFPADiff 1. 630200154+46 2. 521205183+22 3. 412187207−20 4. 303169217−48
Hungary66 – 65RomaniaFinland76 – 74BelgiumHungary50 – 39FinlandBelgium45 – 57RomaniaRomania83 – 72FinlandHungary84 – 50Belgium
Classification round For the first time, the classification round, like the final round, was played as an 8-team round robin, with no further playoffs.
RankTeamPtsWLPFPADiff 9. 1470525364+161 10. 1361500350+150 11. 1252499435+64 12. 1143473461+12 13. 1034342364−22 14. 925342364−22 15. 816368492−124 16. 707340559−219
Italy91 – 50BelgiumFinland61 – 47West GermanyScotland69 – 56AlbaniaTurkey59 – 42Austria
Turkey83 – 70BelgiumFinland53 – 51AustriaWest Germany72 – 43AlbaniaScotland47 – 91Italy
West Germany37 – 57ItalyTurkey100 – 54ScotlandAustria58 – 70BelgiumFinland91 – 42Albania
Finland84 – 67BelgiumAustria48 – 47ScotlandAlbania42 – 82ItalyWest Germany33 – 54Turkey
Finland87 – 97ItalyAlbania64 – 97TurkeyAustria55 – 58West GermanyBelgium76 – 51Scotland
Turkey57 – 50ItalyBelgium50 – 46West GermanyFinland72 – 56ScotlandAlbania45 – 58Austria
Finland51 – 75TurkeyBelgium90 – 48AlbaniaItaly32 – 30AustriaScotland44 – 49West Germany
Final round The final round was played as an 8-team round robin, with no further playoffs.
RankTeamPtsWLPFPADiff 1. 1470537409+128 2. 1361510456+54 3. 1252505458+47 4. 1143480433+47 5. 1034440462−22 6. 925476584−108 7. 816456518−62 8. 707417501−84
France53 – 83Soviet UnionCzechoslovakia65 – 62HungaryPoland66 – 70RomaniaBulgaria99 – 76Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia was the first of the pool leaders to take a loss in the final round, playing against Bulgaria, who had won their division.
Poland63 – 77HungaryFrance45 – 65RomaniaSoviet Union97 – 61YugoslaviaBulgaria82 – 80Czechoslovakia
Bulgaria continued to oust division leaders, knocking Czechoslovakia out of the undefeated group. Romania and the Soviet Union each defeated their second opponents, joining Bulgaria at the top of the pool.
Poland69 – 74BulgariaRomania61 – 76HungaryFrance72 – 75YugoslaviaSoviet Union62 – 60Czechoslovakia
The Soviet team pulled off a close win over the Czechoslovak team that had broken the Soviets' lossless European championship start at 32 games. Romania lost a rematch with preliminary round opponent Hungary, as those two teams went to 2–1 behind the Soviets and Bulgarians, who had each maintained perfect records in their first three games.
Yugoslavia74 – 95CzechoslovakiaFrance58 – 81HungarySoviet Union86 – 64PolandRomania54 – 67Bulgaria
Bulgaria and the Soviet Union each won their 7th game of the tournament and 4th of the final round, improving to 4–0. Hungary stayed close behind, at 3–1, with Romania and Czechoslovakia staying in contention at 2–2.
Yugoslavia69 – 68PolandRomania63 – 87Soviet UnionFrance62 – 64CzechoslovakiaHungary52 – 63Bulgaria
The Soviets and Bulgarians remained undefeated as Hungary, falling to Bulgaria, dropped to 2 games behind them at 3–2 along with Czechoslovakia.
France65 – 68BulgariaCzechoslovakia80 – 61PolandYugoslavia60 – 72RomaniaHungary51 – 62Soviet Union
Improving to 6–0 each, the Soviet Union and Bulgaria set up a match between the two of them that would determine the championship in the seventh and final game of the round.
Hungary81 – 61YugoslaviaCzechoslovakia61 – 55RomaniaFrance62 – 65PolandBulgaria57 – 60Soviet Union
The Soviet Union trailed by 4 points at halftime in their decisive game against Bulgaria. The second half saw an explosion of scoring, with the Soviets adding 41 points in the frame to the 19 they had in the first half. Bulgaria wasn't able to maintain the pace, scoring only 34 in the second half to fall to the Soviets 60–57. Poland picked up their first win of the final round, defeating France, who fell to 0–7.
Final standings
Team rosters 1. Soviet Union: Viktor Zubkov, Valdis Muižnieks, Maigonis Valdmanis, Guram Minashvili, Yuri Ozerov, Mikhail Semyonov, Arkady Bochkarov, Stasys Stonkus, Vladimir Torban, Algirdas Lauritėnas, Mart Laga, Mikhail Studenetski (Coach: Stepan Spandaryan)
2. Bulgaria: Viktor Radev, Georgi Panov, Ilija Mirchev, Ljubomir Panov, Cvjatko Barchovski, Petko Lazarov, Mikhail Semov, Georgi Kanev, Vladimir Ganchev, Metodi Tomovski, Konstantin Totev, Atanas Pejchinski (Coach: Ljudmil Katerinski)
3. Czechoslovakia: Jiří Baumruk, Zdeněk Bobrovský, Miroslav Škeřík, Jaroslav Šíp, Dušan Lukášik, Zdeněk Rylich, Jaroslav Tetiva, Luboš Kolář, Milan Merkl, Jiří Tetiva, Jaroslav Chocholáč, Nikolaj Ordnung (Coach: Gustáv Herrmann)
4. Hungary: János Greminger, László Tóth, Tibor Zsíros, László Bánhegyi, János Bencze, János Simon, László Gabányi, Tibor Czinkán, István Sahin-Tóth, Ervin Keszey, Zoltán Judik, Pál Borbély, István Liptai (Coach: Zoltán Csányi)
6. Yugoslavia: Miodrag Nikolić, Marjan Kandus, Branko Radović, Lajos Engler, Ljubomir Katić, Milutin Minja, Ivo Daneu, Branko Miletić, Bogdan Müller, Vilmos Lóczi, Boris Kristančič, Matija Dermastia (Coach: Aleksandar Nikolić)
References
External links FIBA Europe EuroBasket 1957 Eurobasket.com 1957 EChampionship