The U-20 Turgut Atakol Tournament started today in Ankara (Turkey) with six teams fighting for the title and preparing for the European Championship of this summer, five of them in Division "A" (Turkey, France, Ukraine, Croatia and Russia) and one in Division "B" (Poland). Croatia, Turkey and France started with a victory, with great performances of Toni Prostran ('91) -at the pic-, Melih Mahmutoglu ('90) and Christophe Leonard ('90).

 

Croatia crashed Poland (75-95) with Prostran leading the victory with 29 points. But other players shined. Mario Delas ('90), from Zalgiris Kaunas, made a double-double (16 points, 15 boards and 5 assists), while Leon Radosevic ('90) added 17 points pulling down 8 rebounds and Ivan Batur ('91) poured 12 dishing 6 assists. For Poland the best scorers were Sebastian Szymanski ('91) with 18 and Piotr Pamula ('90) and Tomasz Nowakowski ('90), both with 16.

Turkey didn't suffer either. Local squad beat Ukraine (86-54). Mahmutoglu finished as the best scorer of the winners with 20 points and 1 assist, while Birkan Batuk ('90) nailed 19 dishing 2 assists and Ilkan Karaman ('90) scored 12 grabbing 9 rebounds. For Ukraine Kyril Natyazhko ('90), from Arizona (NCAA), wasn't enough even he scored 12 points and pulled down 8 rebounds. Guard Oleksandr Lypovyy ('91) added 10 points and 3 boards.

Finally France won Russia (71-63) even they were losing by 7 in the half time. Leonard led the win with 15 points and 5 rebounds, while point-guard Andrew Albicy ('90) nailed 14 with 5 assists and Paul Lacombe ('90) poured 11 with 4 boards. At russian side forward Vladimir Ilvlev ('90), from Dynamo Moscow, made one of the best performances of the day: 17 points, 10 rebounds and 1 assist. His teammate Fedor Klyuchnikov ('90) scored 15 with 1 rebound and Evgeny Valiev ('90) added 7 with 5 rebounds and 3 assists. 

 

Photo: 057info / Branko Tabak