The first day of the U-17 World Championship, held in Hamburg (Germany), is history, with the five european teams competing adding their first win. Serbia, Lithuania, Germany, Spain and Poland made a good opener, with great performances of some of their main weapons and showing the potential and chances to make the quarterfinals. Albanian-german Besnik Bekteshi ('93), from Ludwigsburg, led local squad with the best individual show of the day, scoring 27 points in the winning-thriller over Canada (69-68). Let's check what happened.

 

Group A

-Serbia 99 Egypt 67: They struggled at the beginning but finally serbians took an easy win breaking the game in the third quarter (34-21). Forward Luka Mitrovic ('93) led the winners with 18 points (8/11 FG) and 6 rebounds in only 24 minutes. Beside him shined center Nemanja Bezbradica ('93) with a double-double (14 points, 10 boards and 4 blocks in 22 minutes) and rising-star Nenad Miljenovic ('93) with 13, pulling down 6 rebounds and having 3 steals. Aleksandr Cvetkovic ('93) struggled (0 points with 0/4 FG in 19') showing that he is still not fully recovered of his long injury. Youngsters had also their opportunity. Nikola Jankovic ('94) poured 6 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in 18 minutes while Nikola Radicevic ('94) scored 8 with 2/4 from downtown in 17'.

-Lithuania 85 China 72: Asiatic squad battled, winning the first and last quarter, but wasn't enough. Even they showed great potential finally China was stopped by lithuanians. A good game of guard Mantas Mockevicius ('93), 20 points but 6/15 FG, helped by Martynas Paliukenas ('93) -18 and 8 assists- and Tomas Lekunas ('93), with 18 and 4/7 behind the arc, gave them the first victory. The work of the small players, the key.

-Argentina 70 USA 82.

 

Group B

-Poland 71 Australia 54: With the 22-5 run in the second quarter the game was almost over. Guard Mateusz Ponitka ('93) missed many shots but ended with 21 points and 4/11 threes. Bad image at australian side. 7-feet Przemek Karnowski ('93) -in the All Tournament Team last U-16 EC- collected a double-double (10 points, 13 rebounds and 3 assists) and Michal Michalak ('93) added 18 with 3/6 from downtown.

-Germany 69 Canada 68: In the thriller of the day locals started the competition well with guard Besnik Bekteshi ('93) -at the pic- nailing 27 points with 4/7 threes and 5 boards. Guard Anselm Hartmann ('93) also shined with 14 points and 5/8 FG.

-Spain 86 South Korea 71: In the last game of the day Spain, current U-16 European Champion, suffered too much to beat asiatics, but with a great job in the last minutes finished winning by 15. Daniel Díez ('93) led the winners with 21 points (8/17 FG) and 13 rebounds, while Jaime Fernández ('93) -MVP of the final last summer in Kaunas- added 15 with 8 boards. Javier Medori ('93) nailed 12 with 6/8 FG in only 24 minutes. This triangle will be basic in the tournament.   

 

Photo: FIBA.COM