Some U-18 european national teams are starting to prepare the next summer European Championship, and in Onil, close to Alicante (Spain), four of them competed in a three days tournament. In the opener Russia and Spain beat Italy and Germany. What happened after? Hosts took the title, with russian Pavel Khrebtov ('93) being named the MVP. The rest of the All-Tournament spots was for spaniard Daniel Diaz ('93), russian Yury Pershin ('94), italian Amedeo Tessitori ('94) and german Bogdan Radosavljevic ('93). Check what happened in the last two days.
Day 2:
-Germany 64 Russia 69: Russians, with six players available, made another great contest to beat Italy with the MVP Pavel Khrebtov ('93) leading the victory. The forward ended with 22 points (9/15 FG), 9 rebounds and a 24 valoration (even 6 turnovers). Team coached by Sergey Skorochkin started the last quarter with a 7 points deficit, but finally added its second win in two days. Guard Denis Zakharov ('93) nailed 19 points, with 4 rebounds and 2 steals, but crazy shooting percentages (6/24 FG). Who shined for germans? Center Bogdan Radosavljevic ('93) had 18 points (9/12 FG), 13 boards and 1 steal, and Johannes Richter ('93) scored 19 (8/16 FG) pulling down 8 boards.
-Spain 69 Italy 65: Hosts added also their second win, in this case behind the good job of Daniel Díaz ('93). The Real Madrid forward finished with 18 points (7/9 twos) and 8 rebounds. DKV Joventut guard Guillem Vives ('93) scored 17 in 23 minutes. Italy, coached by Stefano Bizzoni, had in Eric Lombardi ('93) their best scorer with 16 points in 19 minutes. Beside him Matteo Chillo ('93), from Fortitudo, added 14 with 7/9 twos and 8 boards and Amedeo Tessitori ('94) 11 points, 9 rebounds and 4 steals.
Day 3:
-Germany 71 Italy 58: Italians ended the tournament with a 0-3 record after losing against Bogdan Radosavljevic ('93) & Co. The center only played 19 minutes due to an injury, but enough to collect a 28 valoration: 16 points, 4 rebounds and 5 blocks. Albanian-german Besnik Bekteshi ('93) added 13 points with 6/10 FG and guard Dennis Schroeder ('93) 10 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals. At italian side Amedeo Tessitori ('94) made another good contest with 16 points, 8 rebounds and 4 steals. Was the only player to score more than eight points.
-Spain 94 Russia 71: Spaniards took the title with a clear victory over the six russians, not enough to win in this case. The great first half of team coached by Juan Antonio Orenga (+16) was too much for the squad led again by Pavel Khrebtov ('93): 20 points, 7 rebounds and 2 steals. 2.06 center Artem Popov ('93) collected a double-double (14 points, 10 rebounds and 1 block). Who shined for hosts? Diego Pérez ('93), from Estudiantes, ended as the best ranked with 12 points, 11 boards and 1 block, but five more players scored at least ten points: Mikel Motos ('93) 11, Daniel Diaz ('93) 11, Javier Medori ('93) 12 and Guillermo Hernangómez ('94) 14. Spanish 1993 generation won the U-16 European Championship on 2009. Some of these prospects were on that team.
-Standings: Spain (3-0), Russia (2-1), Germany (1-2) and Italy (0-3).
Photo: FEB.ES (spaniard Javier Medori shooting)
