And the Qualifying Round of the U20 Division "A" European Championship is over too. Eight teams made it to quarterfinals, and tomorrow they will start the last battle for the Gold. Eurohopes staff will travel to Bilbao (Spain) to update you during the last thee days of the event. Evan Fournier ('92), Andrey Zubkov ('91), Bojan Dubljevic ('91), Mareks Mejeris ('91), Nikola Mirotic ('91), Alessandro Gentile ('92), Furkan Aldemir ('91) and Daniel Theis ('92) are the leaders of the candidates. What are the match-ups? France-Germany, Russia-Turkey, Spain-Latvia and Italy-Montenegro. The real tournament is here.
In group E France ended unbeaten with a victory over Russia (70-57). The talent of Evan Fournier ('92) appeared again, leading the Bleus with 24 points (9/11 FG) and 6 rebounds in only 23 minutes. French were already 17 points up at half time behind small-forward's performance. Beside him Leo Westermann ('92) added 9 and 3 assists. Russians couldn't stop french pearls, even Ruslan Tumanov ('91) had his best game in Bilbao with 14 points and 5/7 FG. Pavel Antipov ('91) and Andrey Zubkov ('91) added 9 apiece. Montenegro finished third after winning Latvia (61-56) in a tied contest. Buducnost's Bojan Dubljevic ('91), one of the best players of the tournament, led the victory with 18 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals. Marko Todorovic ('92), from Joventut Badalona (ACB), is playing a great championship and yesterday showed again his skills: 12 points, 11 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 blocks in 19 minutes. At latvian side 6'9'' Mareks Mejeris ('91) scored 13 points pulling down 9 boards, while Arturs Bricis ('92) added also 13 with 2/5 behind the arc. Both, with a spot in the Top8. The last game of this group was Sweden against Slovenia. Finally swedish won a tied contest (69-68) with a good job from 6'8'' forward Alexander Lindqvist ('91): 16 points (7/14 FG). Viktor Gaddefors ('92), from Virtus Bologna, added 11 with 5 rebounds and 3 assists. 6'8'' PF Marko Pajic ('92) finished as the best scorer at slovenian side with 21 and 8/15 FG, while 6'8'' forward Mitja Nikolic ('91) made his tournament-high with 17 points and 8 boards.
In group F Spain remained unbeaten, but in this case they found more problems as usual against Italy (85-90). Nikola Mirotic ('91) appeared again with 27 points (9/13 FG), 12 rebounds and 4 assists, with italian squad without finding the solution against Montenegrin born. Beside him Cajasol Sevilla (ACB) small-forward Joan Sastre ('91) added 14 and 4 rebounds, while Joan Tomàs ('92) scored 13 with 2/2 behind the arc. Italians came back in the second half, but the free-throws missed by Alessandro Gentile ('92) gave the win to hosts. The guard of Benetton Treviso had 22 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists. Michele Vitali ('91) and 6'9'' Riccardo Cervi ('91) had 13 apiece. Turkey took one of the available spots at quarterfinals crashing Germany (49-71). Furkan Aldemir ('91) -at the pic- wrote his name in the FIBA Europe stats book pulling down 25 rebounds and leading his team to the victory (added 17 points and 3 assists). Guard Can Mutaf ('91) scored 16 with 2 rebounds and Huseyin Köksal ('91) collected another double-double: 15 points, 12 boards and 3 assists. At the losing effort 6'9'' center Daniel Theis ('92) had 12 points and 8 rebounds and current NCAA Champion Niels Giffey ('91) 11 with 5/10 FG. Even the defeat germans qualifyied also. Finally Greece ended this round losing against Ukraine (73-79), with V'Yacheslav Bobrov ('92) leading the victory: 18 points (8/11 FG) and 8 rebounds. Beside him guard Andriy Lebedintsev ('91) scored 12, with 4 rebounds and 4 assists. With their leader injured -Linos Chrisykopoulos ('92)- greek squad fought with Emmanouil Koukoulas ('91) and Dimitrios Katsivelis ('91) scoring 22 apiece. Both teams, knocked out from the Top8.
And the battle for the relegation? Serbia is already with a 3-0 record after a thriller win against Croatia (80-79). Guard Nemanja Nedovic ('91) led the victory with a crazy game: 27 points (11/18 FG), 7 assists and 4 steals (even 8 turnovers). Danilo Andjusic ('91) also made a good job with 14 points and 4 rebounds. At croatian side Boris Barac ('92) had his tournament-high (23 points and 4 assists) and 6'11'' Domagoj Bubalo ('91) added 18 points and 7 boards. In the other contest Lithuania recovered after two losses beating Austria (68-91). A 9-27 run in the last 10 minutes, the key. Saulius Kulvietis ('91) scored 22 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, Paulius Dambrauskas ('91) nailed 19 with 4/6 from downtown, while Arnas Butkevicius ('92) -Gold some weeks ago in the U19 WC- added 16 (2/4 threes). In the losing effort Thomas Klepeisz ('91) scored 17 points and dished 7 assists.
Standings:
-Group E (qualifying round): France (5-0), Russia (4-1), Montenegro (3-2), Latvia (2-3), Sweden (1-4) and Slovenia (0-5).
-Group F (qualifying round): Spain (5-0), Italy (4-1), Turkey and Germany (2-3), Ukraine and Greece (1-4).
-Group G (relegation round): Serbia (3-0), Croatia, Lithuania and Austria (1-2).
Photo: FIBA Europe / Castoria / Marchi
