Juancho Hernangomez, Spain cruise past Hungary, finish EuroBasket group play 5-0

It wasn’t pretty, nor was it their most complete game at EuroBasket 2017 thus far, but Spain eventually eased by Hungary 87-64 as the favorites at the European Championships finished atop Group C with a perfect 5-0 record.

Spain stayed in control throughout today’s matchup even though Hungary pulled to within five at the 8:01 mark of the fourth quarter. From there, Sergio Rodriguez, who finished with 15 points on an efficient 5-8 shooting, scored ten of Spain’s 27 fourth-quarter points to erase Hungary’s upset bid.

Pau Gasol, who surpassed Tony Parker for the highest scoring player in EuroBasket history with a three-pointer in the second quarter, led Spain with 20 points and eight rebounds. Willy Hernangomez came off the bench to score 15 points in 20 quality minutes.

But Spain turned in their sloppiest performance so far at EuroBasket and totaled 14 turnovers on the night and seemed out of sync from the opening tip. Perhaps they weren’t too interested in expending a ton of energy versus a far inferior team in Hungary with the single elimination portion of the tournament on the horizon.

Spain’s previous high for turnovers was 12 — a total they reached in just three quarters today.

Juancho Hernangomez came off the bench again for Spain and scored eight points on 4-6 shooting. The 21-year-old shot 4-4 from two-point range and 0-2 from distance, and also finished with five rebounds, one assist, and one steal. Hernangomez committed two turnovers and like the rest of his side looked sloppier than he had in Spain’s previous four wins.

Through five games at EuroBasket, Hernangomez is averaging 11.0 points on 42.9 percent shooting from the field, 30.8 percent from three, 7.0 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks per game.

Next up for Spain is a matchup versus the fourth-place finisher in Group D (either Turkey or Latvia) on Sunday with a second-round affair against either France or Germany looming on Tuesday.

Hernangomez Highlights