Finland led with 17 points at halftime (57–40), but Georgia came back in the third period. And with just over five minutes left of the match, the lead was down to seven points.
Then Elias Valtonen struck with two three-pointers and the lead was up to 13 points.
It became too difficult for Georgia to catch up.
The Finnish victory was decided mainly by the team's three-point shooting, they made 17 three-pointers.
A fairly typical performance by us – we take the lead, then it gets exciting and in the end we solve it, says superstar Lauri Markkanen to Yle.
Finland has never played a semifinal in a European Championship before and it was only the second time they played a quarterfinal (most recently 2022). In the semifinal on Friday, the reigning World Champion Germany awaits, who beat Slovenia 99–91 in their quarterfinal.
Finland pulled off a major upset in the round of 16 when they eliminated last year's Olympic Games third-place and World Championship runner-up – Serbia.
Finland is one of four European Championship hosts along with Latvia, Poland, and Cyprus. The finals will be decided in Riga, Latvia.
