EuroBasket 1957

Tournament details
Host country	Bulgaria
City	Sofia
Dates	20–30 June
Teams	16
Venue(s)	1 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	Soviet Union (4th title)
Runners-up	Bulgaria
Third place	Czechoslovakia
Fourth place	Hungary
Tournament statistics
MVP	Jiří Baumruk
Top scorer	Eddy Terrace (23.3 points per game)
← 1955 1959 →

The 1957 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 1957, was the tenth FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship, held by FIBA Europe. 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

Rank	Team	Pts	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Czechoslovakia	6	3	0	273	142	+131
2.	Yugoslavia	5	2	1	244	175	+69
3.	Scotland	4	1	2	148	259	−111
4.	Albania	3	0	3	136	225	−89

Group B

Rank	Team	Pts	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Soviet Union	6	3	0	270	158	+112
2.	Poland	5	2	1	188	171	+17
3.	Turkey	4	1	2	179	192	−13
4.	Austria	3	0	3	133	249	−116

Group C

Rank	Team	Pts	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Bulgaria	6	3	0	239	155	+84
2.	France	5	2	1	196	165	+31
3.	Italy	4	1	2	177	185	−8
4.	West Germany	3	0	3	149	256	−107

Group D

Rank	Team	Pts	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Hungary	6	3	0	200	154	+46
2.	Romania	5	2	1	205	183	+22
3.	Finland	4	1	2	187	207	−20
4.	Belgium	3	0	3	169	217	−48

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.

Rank	Team	Pts	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
9.	Turkey	14	7	0	525	364	+161
10.	Italy	13	6	1	500	350	+150
11.	Finland	12	5	2	499	435	+64
12.	Belgium	11	4	3	473	461	+12
13.	West Germany	10	3	4	342	364	−22
14.	Austria	9	2	5	342	364	−22
15.	Scotland	8	1	6	368	492	−124
16.	Albania	7	0	7	340	559	−219

Final round

The final round was played as an 8-team round robin, with no further playoffs.

Rank	Team	Pts	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Soviet Union	14	7	0	537	409	+128
2.	Bulgaria	13	6	1	510	456	+54
3.	Czechoslovakia	12	5	2	505	458	+47
4.	Hungary	11	4	3	480	433	+47
5.	Romania	10	3	4	440	462	−22
6.	Yugoslavia	9	2	5	476	584	−108
7.	Poland	8	1	6	456	518	−62
8.	France	7	0	7	417	501	−84

Yugoslavia was the first of the pool leaders to take a loss in the final round, playing against Bulgaria, who had won their division.

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.

The Soviet team pulled off a close win over the Czechoslovakian 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.

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.

The Soviets and Bulgarians remained undefeated as Hungary, falling to Bulgaria, dropped to 2 games behind them at 3–2 along with Czechoslovakia.

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.

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.

1957 FIBA EuroBasket champions
Soviet Union 4th title

Final standings

1.  Soviet Union
2.  Bulgaria
3.  Czechoslovakia
4.  Hungary
5.  Romania
6.  Yugoslavia
7.  Poland
8.  France
9.  Turkey
10.  Italy
11.  Finland
12.  Belgium
13.  West Germany
14.  Austria
15.  Scotland
16.  Albania

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)