By Luca Virgilio
In Sakarya, on the coast of Black Lake in Turkey, has been played the TBF International Under 16 Tournament where twelve between the strongest national youth teams were challenged for the title from the 1st to 9th February.
It’s been a hard-fought tournament and Greece won the final against Serbia with the score of 53-44 and we’re sure that the Hellenic team will be a good candidate for one of the first places at the upcoming U16 European Championships which will be held in August in Ukraine. Among the ranks of the winning team we have to talk about Vasilis Charalampopoulos ('97) from Panathinaikos who concluded the tournament with 14,5 points, 6,7 rebounds and 3 assists per game and we must give special mention to the MVP of the tournament Antonis Koniaris that ended with 8 points, 4 rebounds and 2,5 assist per game.
A team with lots of growth prospects is definitely the Serbia team that can count on the talent of the future prospect of BC Partizan Milos Glisic ('98) that has dominated every single game with impressive statistics: 16.6 points with 73% from twos and 50% from 3, 6 rebounds and 1 assists per game. The only problem is that he played poorly in the final against Greece where he did not score any point, but we are sure that he will learn how to handle the pressure.
Another very important player for Serbia is been surely Stefan Peno ('97) from the FC Barcelona, which was the all players leader in assists with 4,5 to which he also added 11 points per game. With the French national team has played the most interesting center of the tournament: Goumbauld Stephane ('97) who dominated under the boards against any other opponent catching 14 rebounds and scoring 20 points per game.
Final Standings: 1) Greece, 2) Serbia, 3) France, 4) Germany, 5) Slovenia, 6) Ukraine, 7) Latvia, 8) Turkey, 9) Argentina, 10) China, 11) Montenegro, 12) Sweden
Individual Awards:
Mvp: Antonios Konigaris (Greece)
Best Scorer: Svyatoslav Mikhaliuk (Ukraine) with 21 points per game
Best Rebounder: Stephane Gambauld (France) with 13.2 rebound per game
Best Assistman: Stefan Peno (Sebia) with 4.3 assists per game
