Today started the U-18 Division "A" European Championship, that is held in Vilnius till August 1st. The big name of this first day comes from Turkey. Guard Safak Edge ('92), after making a good tournament last summer, led today Turkey to the win over Russia after two overtimes (97-88) and scoring 35 points with 9/17 from downtown. Crazy performance for him. Eurohopes contacted him: "today's match was amazing for me. We played well as a team and that made me play as well. I was feeling good today and so I made my shots. In the tournament we want to be in top-3. That means we want a medal". Today he had the help from forward Ugur Dokuyan ('93), with 18 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists. For russians shined Sergey Karasev ('93) -17 points, 11 rebounds and 3 steals- and Dmitry Kulagin ('92) -15 points, 6 assists and 4 boards. In the same group C Italy beat Bulgaria (56-75) due to Alessandro Gentile ('92), who finished with 21 points and 5 assists after beeing the best italian only some days ago in the U-20 EC. For Bulgaria Dimitar Dimitrov ('93) poured 16 points pulling down 6 rebounds.
What happened in group A? Slovenia lost against Poland (82-89) with polish squad led by the same U-17 players who won the silver medal some weeks ago in the World Championship of Hamburg. Mateusz Ponitka ('93) led the winners with 20 points and 3/5 threes. At slovenian side Marko Pajic ('92) collected a double-double: 16 points and 12 rebounds. In the other game Lithuania won Ukraine (81-61) with Edgaras Ulanovas ('92) nailing 18 points with 4/5 from downtown. Oleksandr Prokopenko ('92) wasn't enough: 23 points with 6/12 threes.
In group B Sweden -last year in Division "B"- was crashed by Latvia (58-89). Edmunds Dukulis ('92) poured 22 with 8/13 twos for latvians, who started great the tournament. Marcus Eriksson ('93), who reached some weeks ago an agreement with Manresa (ACB), scored 11 with 3/9 threes. In the other contest France, current silver medal, lost against Spain (57-61) missing their best three players, all injured: Pourchot, Fournier and Westermann. Two DKV Joventut players, Joan Tomàs ('92) and Alex Barrera ('92), led the winners with 15 points, 3 rebounds and 2 steals each. Eurohopes contacted Barrera: "the game has been very hard, but we knew how to play. We have a very good team, and if we play our game we cannot be scared from anyone". At french side Mathis Keita ('92) scored 11 points, with 3 rebounds and 3 steals.
Finally in group D the current european champion, Serbia, beat Croatia (65-57) with Bogdan Bogdanovic ('92) -who plays for Zitko Basket- nailing 12 points pulling down 3 rebounds. Boris Barac ('92), the best in the losing effort: 15 with 2/5 from downtown. Germany struggled against the defense of Greece, losing 55-65. Spyridon Motsenigos ('92) made a great job with 18 points and 4/8 threes. For germans Patrick Heckmann ('92) poured 20 with 8/15 FG in 21 minutes.
Photo: FIBA Europe / Pascal Allée
