By EH
And the eightfinal round of the U-19 World Championship, held in Riga (Latvia), is over after another crazy day, with a big upset. Brazil was knocked out of the title fight after a loss in the overtime against Argentina. What will be the match-ups in quarterfinals? Australia-Serbia, Argentina-Croatia, Poland-Lithuania and USA-Russia. All the contests can be watched on live on FIBA TV (but paying 10.99$). Five European teams looking for the Gold, but with USA as main favorite led by Connecticut's forward Jeremy Lamb ('92). Checking the stats recap we can find that Toronto Raptors draftee Jonas Valanciunas ('92) keeps dominating it: first in points (20.7), rebounds (13.3), blocks (3.5) and double-doubles (5). The center is also ninth in two-pointers percentage (58%). A huge group of lithuanians is expected to travel till latvian capital to support team coached by Kazys Maksvytis. But first of all they need to beat today the 1993 Polish generation. Let's check what happened in our last day in Riga.
We woke-up and we walked to the Arena Riga to breakfast and add energy for another long journey. Even Lithuania played the day opener against Egypt, they had a nice group of supporters helping them. The main goal? Win and wait croatian loss against USA. And lithuanians didn't have problems to win even another big performance of 6'9'' center Assem Ahmed ('92). The player from Al Zamalek flirted with the double-twenty (23 points and 19 rebounds), but not enough to beat Valanciunas and company (59-78). The great start showed the way: 9-23 after one quarter. Valanciunas had another good contest with 19 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocks, helped by 6'0'' PG Renaldas Simanavicius ('92), with 14 points and 2/5 threes, and 6'4'' SG Deividas Pukis ('92), from Christian Life Center Academy (USA), who ended with 13 and 3/9 behind the arc. Eleven prospects played at least 10 minutes for the winners, good step forward to rest and prepare the next battle. Eventhough 6'2'' PG Vytenis Cizauskas ('92) still was sidelined due to an injury.
Serbia-Canada, the second game. They played for one spot in quarterfinals, and serbians won easy after arriving to the half time 21 points up (94-73). 7'4'' center Sim Bhullar ('92) got injured -11 points in 15 minutes- and point-guard Kevin Pangos ('93) struggled again -9 points with 1/7 threes-. These main details didn't help Canada when they wanted to come back in the third quarter. Serbian born Stefan Jankovic ('93), from Huntington Prep, only played 3 minutes: 0/1 FG and 1 block. At the winning effort their most important players could rest. Captain Djordje Drenovac ('92) ended as their best scorer with 14 points (7/10 FG), while Bogdan Bogdanovic ('92) and Marko Gujanicic ('92) scored 13 apiece. And Canada was knocked out.
USA and Croatia made a great show, with the first american defeat in the tournament (even they where already first of their group). Team coached by Drazen Brajkovic won (85-87) was led by 6'2'' PG Toni Katic ('92) -at the pic-, who scored important baskets in clutch time, ending with 21 points (8/10 FG) and 4 assists. Boris Barac ('92) nailed 18 with 3/6 threes, while phenom Dario Saric ('94) also hurt USA with 17 points and 8 boards. With this victory Croatia ended second of the group because they beat Lithuania some days ago. And for USA who shined? Lamb had 25 points (9/20 FG), while Florida's Patric Young ('92) added 15 with 7/8 FG and Memphis PG Joe Jackson ('92) 14 with 2/2 from downtown. We cannot forget either the good job of youngster Mislav Brzoja ('94), who had 9 points (4/7 FG) in 23 minutes.
At 16.45h, Riga's time, Australia and Poland fought for the first final position in the other group. We expected a tied game, but finally "aussies" won too easy (72-52). Butler commitment Jackson Aldridge ('92) led the winners with 21 points and 3/5 threes, while Bosnian born Igor Hadziomerovic ('92) -will play for Boise State- nailed 14 with 6/12 FG. Australians showed a great face, killing polish from the third quarter with a 24-6 run. 6'11 PF Piotr Niedwiedzki ('93) ended as their best scorer with 11 points and 5 rebounds, while Michal Michalak ('93) had 9, even 4/13 FG. Their starting PG, Grzegorz Grochowski ('93), still didn't play due to an injury, so 1994 born Jan Grzelinski ('94) and Daniel Szymkiewicz ('94) had to play the point-guard. Grochowski could come back against Lithuania. Their leader, Mateusz Ponitka ('93), struggled also: 7 points with 1/7 FG.
Latvia and Russia played next contest, with hosts already knocked out and russians still dreaming with a spot in quarterfinals. And locals, really motivated, started very hard, with 6'7'' SF Janis Timma ('92) playing great minutes (he ended with 15 points and 6/12 FG). Kaspars Vecvagars ('93) played in a good level at the PG, and nailed 17 with 3/7 from downtown, while NBA draftee Davis Bertans ('92) had another bad night shooting: 7 points with 2/11 FG. Too anxious again. All this wasn't enough and Russia won (63-73) keeping its chances for quarterfinals (they needed Brazil to lose against Argentina). 6'1'' PG Alexander Varnakov ('92) was the man, making his best performance in the event with 21 points and 4/5 from downtown. Locals couldn't stop him. Dmitry Kulagin ('92), showing again his letal 1x1 four meters shot, ended with 15 and 5 boards.
And the big upset of the day arrived with Eurohopes staff travelling back home inside a flight. Argentina beat Brazil after an overtime (71-69), knocking out them from the title battle. Brazil started hard (9-18), but wasn't enough against the heart shown by Argentina. 6'0'' PP Luciano Massarelli ('93) scored 15 points with 3/3 threes to led the victory, while Franco Giorgetti ('92) added 13 with 6 rebounds. At the losing effort Felipe Taddei ('92) scored 15 with 3/5 from downtown, while Lucas Riva Nogueira ('92) collected a double-double: 13 points, 13 rebounds and 4 blocks. 6'1'' PG Raul Neto ('92) also flirted with the triple-double: 11 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists. Crazy. Really crazy watching Brazil potential.
Standings:
Group E: Australia (5-1), Poland and Argentina (4-2), Russia and Brazil (3-3) and Latvia (2-4).
Group F: USA (5-1), Croatia, Lithuania and Serbia (4-2), Canada (2-4) and Egypt (1-5).
Photo: FIBA.com
