Poland and Serbia will play one of the games of the quarterfinals of the U-17 World Championship held in Hamburg (Germany). Both teams will repeat the contest of one year ago when they faced eachother in the bronze medal game of last U-16 European Championship of Kaunas. In that case serbians won. Polish squad will try to add its sixth win in a row, the only european unbeaten team of the tournament with USA. The rest of quarterfinals will be: Lithuania-Germany, China-Canada and USA-Australia. Spain, current U-16 european champion, lost today against Australia in the live-or-die game. Let's check what happened today.
Group A
-USA 112 Serbia 75: Nothing to do. Serbians started well, but americans solve the problem with a 31-9 run in the second quarter. Center Nemanja Bezbradica ('93) -at the pic- finished as the best serbian with 21 points (10/13 twos), 8 rebounds and 2 assists. Youngster Nikola Jankovic ('94) also shined with 13 points and 8 boards in only 23 minutes, while Nenad Miljenovic ('93) struggled again: 4 points with 2/9 FG.
-Lithuania 74 Argentina 71: Great tournament of the lithuanians, finishing second of the group with only one loss. Mantas Mockevicius ('93) led again the winners with 16 points (5/6 FG), 9 rebounds and 2 assists. Beside him Martynas Paliukenas ('93) added 12 points, 5 boards and 4 assists, while Rokas Narkevicius ('93) poured also 12 (5/13 FG).
-Egypt 72 China 103.
Standings: USA (5-0), Lithuania (4-1), China (3-2), Serbia (2-3), Argentina (1-4) and Egypt (0-5).
Group B
-Poland 75 Canada 70: Amazing tournament of polish squad, finishing the first round unbeaten. Przemek Karnowski ('93) collected his fourth double-double in five games (14 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists) and Michal Michalak ('93) nailed also 14, with 7 rebounds and 4 steals. Mateusz Ponitka ('93), the best scorer of the championship till yesterday, struggled: 11 points with 2/10 FG.
-Germany 78 Korea 68: Besnik Bekteshi ('93) was too much for asiatics after finishing with 24 points, 7 boards and 5 assists. For gemans also shined guard Jakob Krumbeck ('93) with 18 points and 6 rebounds. Youngster Malik Müller ('94) played his best game in Hamburg: 11 with 5/10 FG.
-Spain 66 Australia 68: Sad result for spaniards, current U-16 european champions, being eliminated. It has been by far the best game of Alex Ramón ('93) in the tournament, but not enough: 19 points with 7/10 FG. Beside him Alex Suárez ('93) scored 12 with 2/5 threes and Daniel Díez ('93) also 12 with 6/9 twos.
Photo: FIBA.COM
