Croatia and Lithuania will play today the big final of the U-16 Division "A" European Championship of Bar (Montenegro) after the surprising results of last days. Croatians arrived with the best player of the tournament by far, Dario Saric ('94), in a great shape and winning the current champion, Spain, in semifinals. The forward is averaging 23.4 points, 11.6 rebounds and 5 assists. Yesterday against spaniards he was fouled out with 2.44 in the clock and 13 points up for croatians, but team coached by Luis Guil made another great comeback and almost won due to a great moment of tiny point-guard Josep Pérez ('94). At the other side lithuanians qualifyied for the quarterfinals winning also one game in the Qualifying Round, the last one against Italy. After that? They eliminated the hosts and yesterday they knocked out Turkey. No comment. Let's check yesterday results.
Semifinals:
-Croatia 86 Spain 82: Dario Saric ('94) 24 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists; Josep Pérez ('94) 26 points with 4/9 threes and 3 steals.
-Turkey 65 Lithuania 80: Kenan Sipahi ('95) 15 points with 3/3 threes and 7 boards, Augustinas Jankaitis ('94) 17 points with 7/13 twos and 9 rebounds.
Classification Round (5th-8th):
-Russia 51 France 68: Rostislav Karenin ('94) 9 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks; Anthony Racine ('94) 22 points with 6/11 FG and 8 boards.
-Serbia 78 Montenegro 74: Nikola Jankovic ('94) 21 points, 13 rebounds and 2 blocks; Nikola Ivanovic ('94) 29 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists.
Classification Round (9th-10th):
-Italy 67 Greece 53: Aristide Landi ('94) 22 points with 4/5 threes and 5 boards; Kyprianos Maragkos ('94) 15 points, 5 rebounds and 1 assist.
Classificaction Round (11th-12th):
-Poland 68 Bulgaria 43: Daniel Szymkiewicz ('94) 15 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists; Kris Minkov ('94) 14 points with 6/8 twos and 3 rebounds.
Classification Round (13th-16th):
-Germany 63 Latvia 46: Mauricio Marin ('94) 18 points with 2/4 threes and 3 boards; Ceslavs Mateikovics ('94) 11 points, 3 rebounds and 1 steal.
-Denmark 62 Israel 75: Rasmus Larsen ('94) 21 points with 2/5 threes and 11 rebounds; Egor Koulechov ('94) 17 points with 4/7 threes and 9 boards.
Standings: Germany (4-1), Israel (3-2), Latvia (3-2) and Denmark (0-5).
Photo: FIBA Europe / Marko Metlas
