Great Britain sealed their place in Europe's divisional play-offs with an 83-51 win against Belarus in Minsk.

It was a tough game which both teams - the best units in the group - needed to win if they were to advance towards next year's EuroBasket 2009 qualifying matches.

GB now face a two-leg tie on September 11 and 15 against Finland, Georgia, Switzerland or Romania, their opposition being determined by games played later in other groups.

Reduced to nine men by the absence of 6ft 10in forward Chris Haslam - whose wife has just given birth - Chris Finch's team, riding high on a six-match unbeaten run, completed their fourth straight qualifying win with the help of 27 points from the Chicago Bulls' Luol Deng and 12 from centre Andrew Betts.

Betts established himself in the heart of the GB defence and only rarely allowed the Belarus forwards, including the 7ft Aleksandr Koul, a chance to work and score unhindered.

Overall, it was once again Great Britain's defensive intensity that was the crucial factor.

They killed off Belarus' resurgence after half-time by holding them to just 21 points in the second half and a mere five in the last quarter.

After the scare of having Deng called for two fouls in the opening minute, Britain cruised away from their hosts with a 15-2 streak for a 24-12 lead at the end of the first quarter.

But Vladimir Verameyenka and Arseni Kuchinski brought Belarus back in the second quarter and GB's eight-point half-time lead (38-30) looked even more precarious when Igor Mescheriakov opened the third quarter with a three-pointer.

But a three from Richard Midgley and another from Deng studded an 18-5 run which effectively ended Belarus' resistance.

Deng had nine points in that run and his defensive intuition in the fourth quarter, snaring a pair of steals, started an 8-0 run which started the crowd cheering his and Great Britain's effort, before the fans started heading for the exits.

In other Division B action Switzerland got 25 points and seven rebounds from Thabo Sefolosha to top Romania 65-51 and move into a tie for first place in the group while Cyprus topped Ireland in a battle of the two bottom teams in the group.

In Group C, Finland easily put away Luxembourg 100-59 to move top of the group.