The second Euroleague's Nike International Junior Tournament of the season, played in L'Hospitalet (Barcelona), had yesterday a couple of big surprises, with Cajasol and Alba qualifying for the semifinals. Sevilla squad beat Real Madrid and Alba Belin win FC Barcelona with a difference bigger than 16 points, main factors to make a great step forward. Today Cajasol will face DKV Joventut and Alba will do the same with Unicaja Malaga, really tough missions for both of them now. The final is today aftertoon.
Six games were played yesterday. The earliest one was between KK Split and Valencia. Croatians were making their debut, and with not a lot of players (four played more than 30 minutes) they won 79-73 with point-guard Toni Katic ('92) shining with 32 points, 7 assists and 2 steals. Guard Vicko Perasovic ('92) -son of current Cibona coach Velimir- nailed 16 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. At spanish side Antonio Tirado ('92) scored 19 points, grabbing 9 rebounds. With this result in group A the later game between croatians and DKV Joventut at the afternoon will give a spot in semifinals.
Gran Canaria made also its debut at 12pm. The yellow team have lost three important pieces of last year Rome's Tournament tittle: Alex López ('91), Oscar Alvarado ('91) and Samuel Dominguez ('91). Eventhough they battled against Unicaja in the losing effort (61-69). Malaga squad qualifyied for the final led again by small-forward Miki Servera ('92) -at the pic-, who collected 17 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists. Malick Fall ('92), who last week made his debut with Spain, also made a good performance with 8 points, 7 rebounds and 1 block. For Canarias team Christian Diaz ('92) showed good things: 17 points and 3 steals in 23 minutes. Not bad. Point guard Fabio Santana ('92) added 14 points and 2 steals and african prospect Bakary Konate ('93), 9 points, 11 rebounds and 1 block even he didn't touch many possessions on offense.
Next game was Barcelona against Alba Berlin. Germans need to win or lose by less than 16 points to make it to semifinals. And they did it (82-69). Eventhough, in the first quarter Alba was already losing by sixteen due to a great spanish start. Wasn't enough the performance of Joan Creus ('92) -son of former player-, who scored 22 points with 5/9 threes. The most index rated of losers was international Michel Acosta ('92), who also finished as the best spanish player in last NT Tournament of Barakaldo. Power-forward finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Germans were led by guard Sebastian Fulle ('92) -19 points and 7 rebounds- and forward Julius Wolf ('93), with 16 and 8 rebounds even 5/16 FG.
Later on Cajasol Sevilla qualifyied for the semifinals after beating Real Madrid (62-72). African Pape Amadou ('93) shined again with 15 points and 6 rebounds, while brazilian center Gabriel Darin ('92) added 16 points and 11 rebounds and Pablo Villarejo ('92) nailed 16 points. Too much for white team. Interesting center Victor Arteaga ('92), most valuable player of Real Madrid: 11 points, 12 rebounds and 2 blocks. Daniel Diaz ('93) struggled, with 4 points and -1 valoration.
At 6pm DKV Joventut qualyfied for the semifinals winning KK Split (75-68). Forward Joan Tomas ('92) showed that he is really good after his injury, finishing with 23 points, 18 rebounds and 4 assists. Spaniards have insides Pau Margui ('93) and Marko Todorovic ('92) injured, but they are already in semifinals, with a great job of perimeter players. For croatians Toni Katic ('92) shined again for second time at the same day: 25 points even 8 turnovers. Power-forward Filip Najev ('92) was not enough: 23 points, 11 rebounds and 2 blocks.
Finally, in a game without interest for the semifinals, Gran Canaria lost against Lietuvos Rytas (71-74). Jonas Valanciunas ('92) led lithuanians with 17 points, 11 rebounds and 2 blocks. Forward David Delgado ('93), golden boy on last U-16 EC, collected 21 points with 4/7 threes.
Photo: FIBA Europe / Pascal Allée
