By Marti Artigas

 

A new edition of Nike Global Challenge will be held from Friday to Sunday in Washington DC. Eight teams competing in the event, with Lithuania U18 NT facing another step of its preparation for the European Championship of this summer. Baltic squad is filled of intriguing prospects like Augustinas Jankaitis ('94), Marius Grigonis ('94) and Tomas Dimsa ('94). In front, Puerto Rico, Brasil, Canada, China, USA East, USA West and USA Midwest. We have talked with Jankaitis around the event.

 

"Our point in the States is win every game. We must play 'team basketbal' because we can't beat with individual efforts more athletic players". Won't be easy for them, but will be a good test for the EC. The prospect adds that "I think in European Championship our chances are really good, because we playing at home. So our fans gonna be our sixth player. We have a lot of good players, but we must improve everything on the court". Jankaitis, who played for Lietuvos Rytas in the NIJT, also explains that in the Euroleague tournament Zalgiris and Rytas "had pretty good players, but Zalgiris slept with Fenerbahce Ulker, and that was the biggest tournover. All games we played focus and we played 'team basketball'. That is the reason why we won Euroleague trophy". 

 

American teams haven't released yet their official rosters, but taking a look to the other squads we can find prospects like brazilian Lucas Silva Dias (18 points, 12 rebounds and 4 blocks in last Jordan Brand Classic), canadian rising-star Andrew Wiggins or also canadian duo Shayok-Zabo (were in Kaunas for the U17 WC).

 

Lithuania schedule: vs Puerto Rico and vs USA Midwest on Friday and vs USA West on Saturday. The finals will be on Sunday. 

 

-Find attached some highlights of last edition.

 

Twitter of the author: @marti_artigas