By Marti Artigas

 

Slovenia started strong its participation in the U20 Division "A" European Championship. With Zmago Sagadin at the bench, playing at home and with a really good group of players slovenians are one of the favorites. Yesterday they added the first victory after beating Italy (81-68), with five players finishing with double-digits. One of them, Luka Rupnik ('93). 6'1'' point guard, currently playing for Geoplin Slovan at his home country, scored 13 points (4/8 FG), dished 5 assists and pulled down 4 rebounds. "The key was smart offense and team defense", explains the slovenian to Eurohopes. 

 

Rupnik and his teammates showed their potential. The player tells that the win "it gave us some confidence to continue the tournament. It was a first game, and we didn't know what to expect. So we had some pressure". Won't be easy fighting against squads like France or Serbia, but Rupnik adds that "the goal is to take one of the medals. But we have to go game by game day by day and we'll se where will this bring us to". Today, second game against Sweden. 

 

In 2011 summer, in the U20 European Championship at Bilbao (Spain), Slovenia ended eleventh. Last time they took medal was in 2006, when they earned the bronze behind a nice good of players led by Emir Preldzic (20.3 points and 9.4 rebounds), Jaka Klobucar (17.5 with 39% threes) and Gasper Vidmar (14.1 and 55% FG).  

 

Twitter of the author: @marti_artigas

 

Photo: siol.net