Cibona -at the pic- and Fenerbahce are the only unbeaten teams after the first day of the U-14 Belgrade Basketball Festival, held in serbian capital. Both ended with a 2-0 record led by croatian Lovro Mazalin ('97), 18.0 points and 11.5 rebounds, and turkish Ata Sarikan ('97), with 18.0+11.0. Let's check what happened in all the contests.
Cibona 78 Bosna Sarajevo 56: Lefty guard Lovro Mazalin ('97) led croatians to their first win in the tournament behind a huge 40 index with 22 points (9/11 FG), 11 boards and 4 steals. Cibona made a great first half (+19) and bosnians couldn't do anything even the good job of Harun Buljubasic ('97), who ended with 13 points, 7 boards and 2 assists. Both prospects were selected in the All-Tournament Team of the Vasas Cup last September in Hungary.
Partizan 72 Fenerbahce 81: After a tied contest during the first 30 minutes turkish kids added their first victory with a 15-27 run in the last quarter. Guard Levent Demirci ('97) finished as the best scorer of the game with 20 points (10/19 FG), 4 rebounds and 4 assists, while his teammate Ata Sarikan ('97) collected a double-double: 16 points, 12 rebounds and 7 steals. At the losing effort Filip Anicic ('97) battled with 10 points and 12 boards.
Cibona 78 Red Star 56: Another good performance of Lovro Mazalin ('93), in this case with 14 points, 12 rebounds and 2 assists, helped by a huge double-double from youngster Mateo Habazin ('98), who finished with 21 points (8/15 FG), 17 rebounds and 2 assists. The great start of croatians (20-8), one of the keys. At the losing effort Vojislav Stojanovic ('97) had 19 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists.
Olimpija Ljubljana 71 Partizan 88: Serbians recovered from the morning defeat with an important win against slovenians, winning the battle inside the paint (27 to 43 in rebounds). Forward Stefan Nikolic ('97) nailed 30 points (13/20 FG) and pulled down 8 rebounds, leading the win. Beside him also shined Filip Anicic ('97) with 18 and 9/17 FG. What happened for Olimpija? Urban Durnik ('97) scored 16 points (7/15 FG).
Bosna Sarajevo 63 Red Star 64: Second game and second loss for bosnians, in this case by 1 point shocking with the inside power of Vojislav Stojanovic ('97), who ended with 15 points, 14 rebounds and 4 steals, even he missed many shots (7/21 FG). Red Star started the last quarter 11 points up, and almost lost. The job of Dzenan Pilav ('97), 14 points and 16 boards, and Stefan Spiric ('97), 15 and 11, not enough.
Olimpija Ljubljana 66 Fenerbahce 69: Turkish kids ended the first day of the tournament with their second victory after beating Partizan in the morning. In this case they killed slovenians in the rebound (19 to 43) behind Ata Sarikan ('97), 20 points (9/12 FG) and 10 boards, and youngster Dogankan Celik ('98), with 18 points, 9 rebounds and 29 index. At slovenian side the best was Nejc Baric ('97) with a 30 index: 23 points (9/14 FG), 4 boards andd 3 steals.
Standings
Group A: Cibona (2-0), Red Star (1-1) and Bosna (0-2).
Group B: Fenerbahce (2-0), Partizan (1-1) and Olimpija (0-2).
Photo: Belgrade Festival
