French Evan Fournier ('92) is recovering his sensations of last summer U-18 European Championship and after playing not many minutes this season in Nanterre (Pro B) is crashing the stats after two days in the Albert Schweitzer Tournament of Mannheim. The small-forward muted today the US Sports Arena leading France to the victory over USA (67-66) nailing 28 points (5/14 twos, 4/7 threes and 6/7 ft), pulling down 7 rebounds and dishing 3 assists in 38 minutes. Like yesterday Mathis Keita ('92) has been the other reference on offense with 14, 4 rebounds and 4 assists.
Another name of the day has been Dario Saric ('94). The croatian pearl and his teammates beat Argentina (82-81), with the youngster having 20 points (3/3 threes), 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Marko Ramljak ('93) also made a good job with 16 points, 4 assists and 3 steals. With this win croatians recovered from yesterday's defeat against USA.
German U-18 added its second victory in a row, in this case over Brazil (60-73). Phillip Neumann ('92) shined again, and in 30 minutes he scored 18 points (2/3 threes), grabbed 9 boards and put 2 blocks. Patrick Heckmann ('92) also made a good job with 17 points and 3 assists.
Italy struggled in the first half but finally beat China (62-78) after dominating the rebound. Fabio Mian ('92), from Cimberio Varese, led the winners with 21 points and 2/4 behind the arc. His teammate Marco Ceron ('92) repeated another good game with 16 points and 4 rebounds.
Turkey had no problems to crash Japan (94-57) with a great performance of forward Ugur Dokuyan ('93), who finished with 19 points, 14 rebounds and 4 assists. Dogan Senli ('92) and Samet Geyik ('93) added 14 each. With the game already decided (70-49), turkish destroyed asiatics in the third quarter (94-57).
Greece, the current champions, lost again. Spain won (61-76) with DKV Joventut forward Alex Barrera ('92) scoring 17 points with 3/5 behind the arc. Jordi Mas ('92), from FC Barcelona, gave things coming from the bench: 7 points, 10 rebounds and 4 blocks. For greeks Peristeri guard Socratis Psaropoulos ('92) was their best scorer: 15 with 5/8 FG.
Germany U-17 won also its second game in this tournament, in this case over New Zealand (55-64). Power-forward Paul Albrecht ('93) made a double-double: 15 points and 11 rebounds. His teammate Anselm Hartmann ('93) added 12 with 5/5 FG. They won also the rebound battle (46-30).
Finally Israel couldn't win its first game, losing against Australia (74-89). Guard Bar Timor ('92), from Hapoel Haifa, has been one of the best scorers of the day, with 24 points and 3/8 behind the arc. Israelians died in the rebound (33 to 54).
Standings
Group A: Italy (2-0), German U-17 (2-0), New Zealand (0-2) and China (0-2).
Group B: Turkey (2-0), Germany U-18 (2-0), Brasil (0-2) and Japan (0-2).
Group C: France (2-0), USA (1-1), Croatia (1-1) and Argentina (0-2).
Group D: Spain (2-0), Australia (2-0), Israel (0-2) and Greece (0-2).
Photo: FIBA Europe / Pascal Allée
