First time ever. An English NT promoted some days ago to the Division "A", being the first team of this country reaching this achievement. Who were the heroes on the court? This great performance was led by four interesting prospects, three of them already in the Top50 of our 1995 ranking: Mo Soluade ('95), Kingsley Okoroh ('95), Luke Nelson ('95) and Tyrell Isaacs ('95). And what was the other team that got a spot in the upper level? Slovenia. We are talking about the U16 Division "B" European Championship, held in Strumica (Macedonia). Eurohopes staff spent some days there. Let's check what happened in the event's semifinals, the last step.
In an overtime thriller England beat Israel (94-84), even the triple-double of 6'3'' guard Naor Sharon ('95), who will play this season for Pau-Orthez, in France. The prospect had 20 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists. Beside him 6'9'' C Ivan Zalmanson ('95) added 24 with 9/16 FG and 6'3'' F Or Cahal ('95) 15 and 3/8 from downtown. At the winning effort Nelson shined with 27 points, 7 boards and 6 assists, while Soluade tallied 17 with 7 rebounds and Okoroh flirted with the triple-double as well: 12 points, 12 boards and 7 blocks. In the other contest Slovenia passed over Bosnia and Herzegovina (53-74) led by youngster Nejc Zupan ('96): 18 with 3/3 threes. Aleksej Nikolic ('95) also made a good job with 17 and 3/6 from downtown. For bosnians 6'1'' Azir Zahiragic ('95) ended with 16 points and 2 steals. No other player scored more than 9 points. In the final, with both teams already in Division "A", Slovenia took the title (73-82), in the game played at the Sports Hall Park. 6'8'' Jure Ritlop ('95) and 5'10'' Matic Rebec ('95) had 19 points apiece. Nelson shined again in the losing effort with 23 (4/9 threes) in only 29 minutes. Sam Round ('95) tied his tournament's high: 15 with 3/5 from downtown.
Slovenian Rebec was selected the MVP of the Championship, while the other players of the All-Tournament Team -at the pic- were English Okoroh and Soluade, Israealian Sharon and Bosnian Nedim Buza ('95).
Final standings: 1-Slovenia, 2-England, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 4-Israel, 5-Hungary, 6-Armenia, 7-Netherlands, 8-Romania, 9-Portugal, 10-Belgium, 11-Finland, 12-Estonia, 13-Switzerland, 14-Sweden, 15-Luxembourg, 16-Georgia, 17-Denmark, 18-Cyrpus, 19-Macedonia, 20-Ireland, 21-Austria and 22-Slovak Republic.
Stats
Points: Antreas Christodoulou ('95, Cyprus) 23.0
Rebounds: Kingsley Okoroh ('95, England) 11.4
Assists: Naor Sharon ('95, Israel) 5.6
Steals: Ludvig Hakanson ('96, Sweden) 4.1
Blocks: Kingsley Okoroh ('95, England) 4.3
More stats here.
Photo: FIBA Europe / Denis Dukovski
