Today started the Qualifying Round of the U-20 Division "A" European Championship of Croatian, with the best twelve teams of the first round fighting for a spot in quarterfinals and the worst four trying to avoid the relegation to Division "B". The big name of the day has been Ruslan Otverchenko ('90). The guard borned in Mongolia is the leader of Ukraine, a team taking positions between the best. Today, 32 points (8/9 twos, 4/9 threes and 4/4 FT) and 4 steals in the win over Montenegro (75-88). The prospect was helped by Kyryl Natyazhko ('90), with 18 points and 8 rebounds, and Oleksandr Lypovyy ('91) with 17 and 4/8 from downtown. At montenegrin side center Bojan Dubljevic ('91) was too alone with 29 points (6/6 FG and 15/15 FT) and 8 boards. In the same group E Greece added another win, in this case against Lithuania (70-75). Nikolaos Pappas ('90) and Co. are on the perfect way to take the gold medal for second year in a row. Let's see. The guard led his team today again wth 18 points (6/15 FG), 5 rebounds and 3 steals. Beside him also shined Kostas Sloukas ('90) with 14 points and 4 assists and Kostas Papanikolaou ('90) with 13 and 4/7 threes. For baltic squad Paulius Dambrauskas ('91) nailed 13 points dishing 3 assists and Gediminas Orelik ('90) poured 12 pulling down 5 boards. Finally Serbia added its second win in this round after beating Latvia (57-70). Nemanja Nedovic ('91) led balcanics with 16 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, while Aleksandr Mitrovic ('90) added 14 and 3/5 threes and Dejan Musli ('91) 14 and 9 boards. For latvians, who battled during many minutes, center Lauris Blaus ('90) poured 19 with 7/9 twos and Kristers Zeidaks ('90) scored 16 with 9 boards but 1/8 from downtown.
And what happened in group F? Spain is at the top with a 3-0 record after beating Italy easy (56-78). Nacho Llovet ('91) made a huge game (18 points and 15 rebounds), while Josep Franch ('91) added also 18 with 5 assists. Both players, grown in DKV Joventut youth teams, are the spanish references in the championship. Italians were winning at half time (+1), but were killed after. Youngster Alessandro Gentile ('92), the only player who scored more than 8 points: 16 with 6/13 FG. The other team with the same record is France. French beat Slovenia today (43-50) with forward Alexis Tanghe ('90) as their best player with 11 points and 4/7 FG. Christophe Leonard ('90) poured 10 with 4 rebounds. For slovenians only Uros Zadnik ('90) made double-figures: 10 points with 4/4 FG. Amazing result in the first quarter (5-5). Half time? 13-16. Finally Croatia beat Russia (75-61). Leon Radosevic ('90) showed that he is in a great shape (18 with 7/10 twos), helped by Mario Delas ('90), from Zalgiris Kaunas, with 15 points and 6/10 FG. For russians, three players with 10 points: Vladimir Ivlev ('90) with 11 rebounds, Pavel Antipov ('90) with 4/8 FG, and Maxim Bychkov ('90) with 2/2 from behind the arc.
But four other teams more are trying to avoid the relegation to Division "B". Germany made a good first step beating Czech Republic (68-73). Guard Anthony Di Leo ('90) led team coached by Dennis Wucherer with 20 points and 9/15 FG. Steven Monse ('90) added 11 with 7 boards. Center Tomas Voslajer ('90) scored 22 points and grabbed 9 boards for czechs, were Tomas Satoransky ('90) made another complete game except shooting: 11 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals, but 1/7 threes. In the other contest, sad news for a crazy Turkey. Turkish don't know what is a victory in Croatia, and today either. Netherlands beat them (63-68) led by Mohammed Kherrazi ('90) with 15 points and 7 rebounds. Beside him Jessey Voorn ('90) nailed 14 with 4/9 threes. At the other side Turkey struggled again even Melih Mahmutoglu ('90) -15 points with 2/5 threes-, Ilkan Karaman ('90) -14 and 7 boards- and Furkan Aldemir ('91), who finished with a double-double (13 points and 14 rebounds).
Standings:
-Group E: Greece (3-0), Ukraine (2-1), Serbia (2-1), Lithuania (1-2), Montenegro (1-2) and Latvia (0-3).
-Group F: Spain (3-0), France (3-0), Croatia (2-1), Russia (1-2), Slovenia (0-3) and Italy (0-3).
-To avoid the relegation (two teams go down): Germany (1-0), Netherlands (1-0), Czech Republic (0-1) and Turkey (0-1).
Photo: Kosarka.hr / Igor Petrinovic
