By Marti Artigas

 

Lithuanian U18 national team participated in the Nike Global Challenge, held in Washington DC and Alexandria (Virginia), some days ago. Europeans needed to fight with some teams around to world, finishing sixth of the event and with 6'4'' SG Justas Tamulis ('94) being selected in the International All-Tournament Team, joining canadians Andrew Wiggins and Trey Lyles (both MVPs), Dereke Reese (Puerto Rico), Deryk Evandro Ramos (Brasil) and Gao Shang (China). The lithuanian averaged 18.5 points (32% threes), 4.5 rebounds and 1.8 assists. Let's check what happaned in each contest.

 

In the first day Lithuania played a couple of games. In the opener they defeated Puerto Rico (83-79) behind a great job from Tomas Dimsa ('94), with 15 points and 3/6 behind the arc, and Tamulis (14 and 3 rebounds, even 1/10 threes). At the aftenoon they lost to USA Midwest (101-66), with Tamulis scoring 17 (4/10 threes) and Mantvydas Staselis ('94) adding 12 with 5/8 FG. In the second journey the couldn't beat USA West, losing after an overtime (97-95). In this case Tamulis shined again with 29 points (6/16 from downtown), while Augustinas Jankaitis ('94) had 19 and 6 boards and Jokubas Gintvainis ('94) adding 18 (4/5 threes). Finally in the contest for the final fifth spot Lithuania lost to USA East (93-91) after fighting till the last moment, and Staselis scoring 20 with 2/3 from downtown and Tamulis 14 with 4/11.

 

Standings: USA Midwest, Canada, USA West, Brasil, USA East, Lithuania, Puerto Rico and China. 

 

Twitter of the author: @marti_artigas

 

Photo: Nike Global Challenge