Spain-Italy. This will be the big final of the U20 Division "A" European Championship, held last ten days in Bilbao (Basque Country). Both teams will fight for the Gold this afternoon (19.10h) after beating their rivals yesterday in the semifinals. Spaniards, after a tied first half, crashed Russia (+27) behind another show from Montenegrin born Nikola Mirotic ('91), who ended with 37 points (15/22 FG) and 8 rebounds. In the other game italians beat France, knocking out Evan Fournier ('91) & Co. from the title's fight. With Alessandro Gentile ('91) feeling really confortable in this kind of situations Benetton's guard appeared in the most important minutes killing team coached by Jean-Aimé Toupane with 21 points and 3 assists. Let's check what happened in all the games.
In the first semifinal Italy defeat France (66-77) with Achile Polonara ('91) helping Gentile with an excellent job. 6'8'' forward nailed 15 points (6/7 FG) in 29 minutes, "sending" Nicolò Melli ('91) to the bench (he didn't play last quarter). PG Andrea Nicolao ('91) also became one of the keys, with 12 points ad 4 assists (2/3 from dowtown). At the losing effort Fournier ended as the best scorer (19), but missing too much (7/22 FG). ASVEL PG Leo Westermann ('92) also had problems to score (11 with 4/15 FG). Florida's Wilfried Yeguete ('91) flirted with the double-double (10 and 9 boards), adding much energy. But wasn't enough. In the second contest Spain and Russia played a tied first half (44-39 for spaniards), but in the third and fourth quarters they crashed russians, who struggled when they started to miss from behind the arc (20 points last 20 minutes). With five opened players during most of the game was really tough beat Mirotic & Co. Beside Real Madrid PF also shined Joan Sastre ('91), showing his credentials for the All-Tournament Team. Cajasol Sevilla (ACB) SF tallied 23 points with 4/7 from downtown. At russian side 6'7'' forward Pavel Antipov ('91) scored 10, pulling down 6 rebounds.
In the battle between the 5th and 8th final positions Germany defeat Montenegro (80-61), with Gonzaga (NCAA) Mathis Mönninghoff ('92) having 17 points and 5/8 from downtown. Bojan Dubljevic ('91), second best tournament's scorer (22.0), fought at the losing effort with a double-double (18 points and 10 boards). In another game of this fight Turkey beat Latvia (71-74) with guard Huseyin Köksal ('91) making his event-high with 25 points (10/15 FG). Guard Arturs Bricis ('91) scored 15 with 6/8 FG.
Sweden ended 9th in the tournament with a victory over Ukraine (79-69). Virtus Bologna Viktor Gaddefors ('92) led the win with 19 points and 9 boards. For Ukraine Oleksandr Lypovyy ('91) showed again his potential: 18 points and 3/5 threes. Slovenia finished 11th beating Greece (67-80) behind 6'8'' F Edo Muric ('91), who had 20 points and 9 boards. 7'0'' C Alen Omic ('92) added 17 points and 19 rebounds. At greek side Sokratis Psaropoulos ('92) nailed 24 with 10/13 FG.
Finally, in the relegation round, the disaster had croatian accent. They lost in the die-or-live game against Lithuania, showing a crazy image (68-92). Golden boys Dovydas Redikas ('92) and Arnas Butkevicius ('92) destroyed them in the second half. They ended with 19 and 17 points. In the losing effort Ivan Batur ('91) and Duje Dukan ('91) had 11 apiece. In the other game Serbia crashed Austria (101-47) with Nemanja Nedovic ('91) nailing 26 points with 4/4 threes and Danilo Andjusic ('91) adding 23 and 5/6 from downtown. PG Daniel Friedrich ('92) fought at the losing effort with 17 and 3/4 threes. The loser of today's game between Lithuania and Austria will play in Division "B" next season.
Standings (relegation round): Serbia (5-0), Lithuania and Austria (2-3) and Croatia (1-4).
Photo: Jonatan Gonzalez (at the pic, Josep Franch and Nikola Mirotic)
