By Juan Cobos
What happened during the last three days at U-18 "Mondial de Basket" at Douai? We already took a look at the first two days of competition, finding France, Turkey and Germany undefeated while Croatia, Bulgaria and Greece were still looking for their first win. How did things end? French Mouhammadou Jaiteh ('94) was selected the MVP, while the rest of the All-Tournament Team was for Turkish Kenan Sipahi ('95), German Mauricio Marin ('94), Croatian Josip Mikulic ('93) and Greek Giannoulis Larentzakis ('93).
Day 3:
France 56 Turkey 62: Fighting for the first place, the Turkish were able to reduced the hosts game, and made a huge step in order to win the tournament. INSEP products 6'8'' PF Livio Jean-Charles ('93) and 6'6'' SF William Howard ('93) scored 11 points apiece but Turkey stopped 6'9'' C Mouhammadou Jaiteh ('94), who only scored 8 points and actually only shot 4 times from the field, and that was the key of the game. 6'9'' PF Berkay Candan ('93) made 15 points off the bench while 6'5'' SG Kerem Hotic ('93) added 12 more.
Croatia 66 Greece 84: Tough loss for Croatia, still winningless. 6'1'' PG Stipe Cubric ('93) led the Croatian scorers with 15 points, but only found help in 6'10'' PF Josip Mikulic ('93), who added 14 points to go along with 9 boards. 6'2'' PG Apollon Deligeorgis ('93) with 16 points, and Giannoulis Larentzakis ('93), with 20, were again among Greece's top scorers. 6'8'' C Petros Melissaratos ('93) posted a double-double making 16 points and grabbing 13 boards.
Germany 74 Bulgaria 75: Bulgary finally won a game and kept proving they will be a contender for the Division "B" European Championships. The thriller was decided by a free throw made by Bulgaria's 6'7'' SF Aleks Simeonov ('93) with 6 seconds left. 6'1'' PG Dennis Schroeder ('93) missed a three at the buzzer for the win, though. 6'11'' C Bogdan Radosavljevic ('93) led the Germans with 16 points and 7 rebounds. 6'5'' SG Paul Zipser ('94) added 14 points while 6'2'' PG Mauricio Marin ('94) showed his shooting skills for 13 points with 4 three pointers. For Bulgaria, 5 players scored 8 or more points, with 6'8'' PF Dimitar Dimitrov ('93) leading the scorers with 13. Simeonov and 6'5'' SF Nikolay Stoyanov ('94) also scored in double figures.
Day 4:
Turkey 58 Greece 54: Another game without lots of points. Turkey managed to get the win and was one step closer to win the tourney. With Greece trailing by one and 7 seconds left, Berkay Candan hit two free throws to secure the win. 6'4'' PG Kenan Sipahi ('95), one of the bests cadets in Europe, led the Turkish with 14 points while Candan finished with 11 and 6 rebounds. Petros Melissaratos ('93) put on a one-man-show for Greece with 24 points and 7 boards. 6'5'' SG Leftheris Bochiridis ('93) was his wingman with 12 points.
Croatia 73 Bulgaria 59: Finally Croatia could win a game which was actually done at halftime. Josip Mikulic showed why he was once committed to an ACC school, and led Croatia with 17 points and 9 rebounds. Cubric, 14 points, 6'6'' SG Matej Buovac ('93) with 13, and 6'7'' PF Mario Matasovic ('93) with 12, also scored in double figures. 6'8'' F Tencho Tenchev ('93), from Rimini, scored 17 points with 3 bombs from downtown while 6'9'' C Denislav Vutev ('93) added 15.
France 66 Germany 58: With this win by the hosts, Turkey won the Tournament while France secured the second place. Germany missed Bogdan Radosavljevic and Dennis Schroeder, suspended by their coach, and was led by Marin, who went on to shoot 4 out of 4 from beyond the arc for a total of 18 points. Jaiteh was well again, with 12 points and 8 boards, but 6'7'' PF Bruno Cingala-Mata ('93), with 18 points and 9 rebounds in only 12 minutes was outstanding.
Day 5:
Bulgaria 62 Greece 69: Bulgaria could not avoid the last spot in the Tournament with its loss against Greece. Dimitar Dimitrov and Tencho Tenchev scored 16 points apiece but were too alone (they also combined for 19 boards). Only 6'9'' C Velislav Galabov ('94) helped them with 11 points. Deligeorgis, with an all around performance of 16 points, 7 rebounds and 5 asssists, and US born 6'4'' SF Emmanouil Tselentakis ('93), with 13 points and 6 steals, led the Hellenics.
Turkey 54 Germany 46: With the trophy already in the pocket, Turkey had a non-trascendental last day game versus a Germany team missing its arguably best player (Radosavljevic) and a solid guard like Schroeder. 6'6'' SF Ugur Dokuyan ('93) and 6'11'' C Ramazan Tekin ('93) led Turkey with 10 points apiece while 6'3'' PG Anselm Hartmann ('93) was Germany's top scorer with 18 points. Eurohopes ranked Paul Zipser was again solid with 12 points.
France 58 Croatia 38: To end the Tournament, France said see you next year to its fans with a huge blowout in its game versus Croatia. With 27 points up at the halftime, with Croatia scoring only 6 points during the second quarter, what seemed difficult to happen actually did happened and Croatia broke his record making only 3 points during the fourth quarter. Josip Mikulic with 11 points and 5 boards was Croatia's only man in double figures. France saw its two starting inside players having a good game with Jean-Charles making 12 points (with 6 boards) and Jaiteh posting a 12+8. 6'1'' PG Ulysse Adjagba ('93) with 11 points and 6'5'' SF Laurian Tarris ('93), with 10, also shined.
Final Standings: 1. Turkey (5-0), 2. France (4-1), 3. Germany (2-3), 4. Greece (2-3), 5. Croatia (1-4), 6. Bulgaria (1-4).
Photo: Lafargue / Solobasket
