By Marti Artigas

 

In the last three years Turkey has won two bronze medals in the U18 Division "A" European Championships, while in 2004 & 2005 the medal was made of silver. This summer, in a few weeks, a next edition will be played in Latvia and Lithuania, and they expect to make big things. They have talent and intriguing prospects with good upside like Birsen, Osman, Yildizli, Sipahi, Ozmizrak or Erulku. And they are making the first steps of the preparation. Last days they defeated Slovenia in a couple of battles. Let's see what happened there.

 

In the first of the two contests played in Ljubljana turkish kids won 82-81. James Birsen ('95) led the win with 15 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists, while Kerem Kanter ('95) added 8 with 7 rebounds. He is Enes brother and this season has played in MacDuffie School in Jacksonville (USA). At the losing effort Aleksej Nikolic ('95) had 18. In the second game they also won (84-71). In this case Tayfun Erulku ('94) had 18, pulling down a couple of boards, while Talat Altunbey ('94) added 12 with 2 rebounds also. In this case for slovenians Gregor Hrovat ('94) had 14. 

 

Twitter of the author: @marti_artigas

 

Photo: TBF