Eurohopes staff travelled last Saturday to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine to watch on live two games: Latvia-Turkey and France-Montenegro. The U-16 Tournament, held in the small french city close to swiss border, showed on last editions players like Danilo Gallinari ('88) or Tony Parker ('80). The good organization, with the gym packed and many people following next french generations, is a good example of what was going on. Turkey won the competition with three victories in three games and Tayfun Erulku ('94) earning the MVP award after winning the "Best Youngster Trophy" last year. The rest of players of the All-Tournament team were montenegrin Nikola Ivanovic ('94), latvian Rihards Adins ('94) -strange decision-, french Damien Inglis ('95) and turkish Burak Haciismail ('94). Many details written in our memo pad for our data base.
Friday started the competition with a game between Montenegro and Turkey. Ivanovic & Co. arrived to Bellegarde without Filip Knezevic ('94), who suffered a car accident some days before, while turkish travelled without Burackan Yildizli ('94) due to coach's decision. In this opening game montenegrin squad arrived to the last quarter with 54-52, but finally lost 63-77. Team coached by Orhan Demirel added its first win even finishing with 2/25 behind the arc, but the difference in the rebound became decisive (28-44). Ivanovic made a good job, but wasn't enough: 19 points (3/8 threes) and 5 rebounds. The guard showed a great attitude during the games (on the court and from the bench), scoring also big threes from downtown. Against turkish also shined center Milos Pajovic ('94), doing dirty job in the paint: 13 points (6/9 FG) and 4 rebounds. For Turkey the best scorer was forward Metin Turen ('94), from Darussafaka. The prospect poured 19 points (9/20 FG) and pulled down 7 boards. Center Burak Haciismail ('94) started to build his "All-Tournament" trophy: 11 points, 15 rebounds and 4 assists.
The second battle was between France and Latvia. Local squad arrived four days before to prepare a tournament without five important pieces: Alexandre Chassang ('94) and Charly Maraux ('94), both in the Jordan Brand Classic, and Raphael Binvignat ('94), Jean-Francois Basileu ('94) and Mouhamadou Jaiteh ('94), all of them injured. The two most important latvian prospects were ready to show their best: Oskars Reinfelds ('94) and Ceslavs Mateikovics ('94). Too easy for France. The local kids won 45-67. Guard Benjamin Sene ('94), from Nancy, finished as their best player with 15 points (7/13 FG), while guard Anthony Racine ('94) showed his skills (unstoppable running fastbreak; if he wants to finish with a lay-up he does it), nailing 11 points with 3/4 threes. For Latvia Mateikovics sent good sensations (16 points with 2/4 threes and 6 rebounds), while Reinfelds struggled: 8 points with 4/15 FG and 8 rebounds (+6 turnovers). Edgars Stelmahers ('94) shined with his scoring capacity from outside: 13 and 3/7 threes.
Let's talk about Saturday. We arrived after a 6 hours trip by car, with time enough to go to the McDonald's (Big Mac with "frites") before taking the seats in the gym. A couple of coffees helped us to battle the fatigue after the trip. Many people of the organization working. Nice atmosphere. We took a good decision going there. Turkey and Latvia played a tied game, only broken by Erulku from the long distance (71-64). After a first half with the guard without shooting threes, in the most important moment on the contest he killed latvians behind the arc. The turkish prospect showed his character when the team needed it (22 points with 5/7 threes, 7 rebounds and 4 assists), in the hottest part of the game. Beside him Haciismail played in a great level (14 with 6/6 FG and 9 rebounds). The center, very serious and solid in all his actions, finished nice actions inside the paint with both hands. Very interesting prospect. Youngster Kenan Sipahi ('95) didn't appear: 5 points with 1/6 FG and 4 turnovers. He talks a lot with his teammates, driving them during the game, but if team needed him to score, bad bussiness. For Latvia Mateikovics showed nice things (20 points with 3/5 threes and 9 rebounds). The power-forward changed his face only a couple of times after scoring two big threes. He likes to be most of times opened. He needs to improve his body to make a step forward. Interesting. About Reinfelds (9 points with 1/12 FG and 9 rebounds), he has huge arms with a great jumping capacity. He tries to finish lay-ups very hard, looking many times for the offense rebounds also due to his body. Strong legs. He shoots easy (with bad percentages against turkish). Stelmahers played like turkish Safak Edge ('92) in Mannheim, shooting and shooting, missing and missing. The guard finished with 17 points but 6/21 FG (3/15 threes). Not bad.
90 minutes later started the second game (too much time). France faced Montenegro, a team that will play at home (Bar) this summer in the Division "A" European Championship. They played by far the best basketball of the day, beating french squad (57-47). After the game it seemed they won the Euroleague. Ivanovic told us why: "Is the first win of this team". For the winners shined Dusan Perovic ('94) with 16 points and 11 boards. The skinny power-forward showed his hability playing from outside to inside. Even he had bad luck behind the arc (1/6), the one he scored was really important. Good cutting from weak side and finishing with both hands. Good job. Needs to have a bigger body. Guard Ivanovic -the leader of team- had big threes in clutch time, nailing 14 points with 3/8 threes and 2 assists. Smart fourcing fouls. Guard Armin Nisic ('94) -with 8 points and 4 assists (even 9 TO)- and center Pajovic (9+6) also sent us good sensations. Interesting France, starting the game with youngster power-forward Damien Inglis ('95). Two fouls in a row made him go the bench (dammm!). Guards Racine (14 with 6 rebounds but 1/11 threes) and Boris Dallo ('94) -8 and 3 boards- were the men to follow. Both, nine levels higher than montenegrin players in their athleticism. When Racine was running he was unstoppable, but for us Dallo -at the pic- is their rising star. Bigger body than the one he showed to Eurohopes staff last summer in Kaunas, with great court vision and passing skills when he penetrates. Great defender and good hands shooting from mid-range. If he improves behind the arc and continues his progression, he will become one of the big names of french next generations. Finally Inglis came back to the court, and didn't waste his time: 12 points (6/10 FG) and 12 rebounds in only 26 minutes. Great moves in the paint, and great instinct on the offense rebound. After the game we went down the locker rooms to see the atmosphere of montenegrin win, as we told before. Some minutes later we took the car and we arrived at home around 5am.
Sunday started with a Latvia-Montenegro game, scheduled at 2.30pm. Latvians won their first contest of the tournament (76-72). Reinfelds appeared after his bad game of the day before, and nailed 26 points (8/16 FG), pulled down 7 rebounds, dished 3 assists and put 3 blocks. Nice. Of course Mateikovics also played well (15 points and 5 rebounds), while Stelmahers (aka "Safak Edge") repeated again (12 with 2/10 threes). For Montenegro was the turn of Vaso Popovic ('94). The guard reached the 26 points with 11/15 FG, but wasn't enough. Ivanovic added 12 with 2/3 and 5 assists.
Finally Tukey finished with a 3-0 record winning the tournament after beating France (53-61). Amazing performance of youngster Inglis (17 points, 23 rebounds and 3 blocks), while Racine struggled again in the shot (11 with 2/9 threes). Erulku led the victory (21 and 3 assists), while power-forward Talat Altunbey ('94) added 14 and 10 boards.
Stats of the All-Tournament team:
-Tayfun Erulku ('94, Turkey) -MVP-: 17.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists.
-Nikola Ivanovic ('94, Montenegro): 15.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 42% on threes.
-Rihards Adins ('94, Latvia): 0.7 points, 2.0 rebounds and 9.3 minutes (we are sure that organization made a mistake, Meteikovics should be in his place).
-Damien Inglis ('95, France): 12.0 points, 14.7 rebounds and 1.3 blocks.
-Burak Haciismail ('94, Turkey): 11.3 points, 12.7 rebounds and 57% FG.
Stats of other interesting prospects:
-Dusan Perovic ('94, Montenegro): 10.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and 37% FG.
-Kenan Sipahi ('95, Turkey): 5.7 points, 6.0 assists and 29% FG.
-Oskars Reinfelds ('94, Latvia): 14.3 points, 8.0 rebounds and 30% FG.
-Ceslavs Mateikovics ('94, Latvia): 17.0 points, 6.7 rebounds and 60% 3p.
-Anthony Racine ('94, France): 12.0 points, 2.7 rebounds and 31% FG.
-Boris Dallo ('94, France): 8.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.7 steals.
Photo: FIBA Europe / Alius Koroliovas
