Nemanja Bjelica ('88) was playing in Austria before Svetislav Pesic signed him for Red Star last season. The serbian young prospect had enough with one year to show his skills, playing in almost all positions on the court even he is 2.08 tall. He finished the season with 4.0 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists in Adriatic League. And Dusan Ivkovic choose him for the NT. Now, in Poland, is the serbian prospect with better stats: 5.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.0 steals. Yesterday Serbia beat Great Britain 59-77 with Bjelica shining as an all around player: 5 points, 8 rebounds and 3 steals. Beside him point guard Stefan Markovic ('88) collected 2 points in 4 minutes, while Milan Macvan ('89) scored 1 and dished 3 assists. Miroslav Raduljica ('88) and english Daniel Clark ('88) didn't play. On the other game of group C Spain won Slovenia after the overtime (90-84), with Ricky Rubio ('90) scoring 9 points and making 3 steals, but with Victor Claver ('88) on the bench during all the game. The first round finished, with Slovenia at the top of this group (2-1) over Serbia (2-1), Spain (2-1) and Great Britain (0-3).
On group A Croatia beat FYROM (71-81) and Greece crashed Israel (80-106). Kostas Koufos ('89), with 4 points and 8 rebounds, and Nick Calathes ('89), 5 points and 4 assists, played in a good level in front Gal Mekel ('88) & Co. The point-guard, who is averaging 7.0 points and 3.7 rebounds, finished yesterday with 4 points and 1 rebound. On the standings Greece finished first (3-0) below Croatia (2-1), FYROM (1-2) and Israel (0-3).
At group B France won its third game in a row, in this case against Russia (64-69). Antoine Diot ('89) didn't play, and Nicolas Batum ('88) didn't score in 17 minutes (0/3 FG). On the other game Latvia won Germany (62-68). Rolands Freimanis ('88) didn't play for the winners. For the young german squad Elias Harris ('89) collected 5 points and 5 rebounds, Tim Olbrecht ('88) scored 3 points and grabbed 2 rebounds, Robin Benzing ('89) added 2 points in 9 minutes, Lucca Staiger ('88) didn't score in 8 minutes (0/1 FG) and Tibor Pleiss ('89) didn't play. On the standings Frane finished first (3-0) over Russia (1-2), Germany (1-2) and Latvia (1-2).
Finally, at group D, Turkey won also its third game in a row after beating Poland (69-87). Even the clear victory Baris Hersek ('88) only played 2 minutes. Lithuania won its first game, but made it to the second round after winning Bulgaria 84-69. For the looser team Chavdar Kostov ('88) didn't score in 13 minutes (0/2 FG) and Bozhidar Abramov ('90) played only 2. On the standings Turkey finished first of the group (3-0), below Poland (2-1), Lithuania (1-2) and Bulgaria (0-3).
Photo: Adriatic League
