The U-16 Division "B" European Championship started today in Tallin (Estonia), with twenty teams looking for a spot in the final, that means the promotion to Division "A". Last summer Bulgaria and Denmark won the prize. Who will be their successors? In the opener some of the favorites started very strong: Czech Republic (+20), Slovenia (+22), Ukraine (+32),... But one of the names of this first day has been Shane Hammink ('94). The 1.98 forward, borned in Baton Rouge (USA), led Netherlands to its first win over Finland (60-53) with 24 points (11/20 FG), 7 rebounds and 2 assists. The prospect is following his father's steps. Geert played in the NBA (Orlando Magic) and also with many european teams (Aris, Alba,...). Let's check what happened in all the games.

 

Group A:

-Portugal 65 Sweden 57: Jose Miranda ('94) 15 points with 4/7 threes in 14'; Lars Larsson ('94) 18 points with 4/5 threes and 5 rebounds.

-Austria 45 Ukraine 77: Valentin Bauer ('94) 18 points with 8/15 FG and 5 steals; Volodymyr Gerun ('94) 19 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocks.

 

Standings: Ukraine (1-0), Portugal (1-0), Sweden (0-1), Austria (0-1) and Switzerland (0-0).

 

Group B:

-Belarus 61 England 62: Anton Vashkevich ('94) 20 points, 17 rebounds and 2 steals; Joshua Ward-Hibbert ('94) 24 points, 6 rebounds and 6 steals.

-Slovak Republic 57 Czech Republic 77: Simon Krajcovic ('94) 14 points with 6/12 FG and 6 rebounds; Jan Svandrlik ('94) 14 points, 7 rebounds and 1 block.

 

Standings: Czech Republic (1-0), England (1-0), Belarus (0-1), Slovak Republic (0-1) and Ireland (0-0).

 

Group C:

-Belgium 49 Slovenia 71: Emmanuel Lecomte ('95) 11 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists; Tomaz Bolcina ('94) 21 points with 10/10 twos and 7 rebounds.

-Romania 61 Georgia 83: Vlad Popovici ('94) 15 points, 9 rebounds and 1 steal; Beka Burjanadze ('94) 16 points, 14 rebounds and 3 blocks. 

 

Standings: Slovenia (1-0), Georgia (1-0), Romania (0-1), Belgium (0-1) and Luxembourg (0-0).

 

Group D:

-Netherlands 60 Finland 53: Shane Hammink ('94) 24 points with 11/20 FG and 7 rebounds; Juuso Kauppinen ('94) 16 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals.

-Estonia 56 Hungary 61: Martin Jurtom ('94) 10 points with 4/5 twos and 2 rebounds; Norbert Tokodi ('94) 11 points with 5/10 FG and 2 steals.

 

Standings: Netherlands (1-0), Hungary (1-0), Estonia (0-1), Finland (0-1) and Norway (0-0).

 

Photo: Basketball.nl