By Luca Virgilio

 

One of the best tournaments in the basketball World and Eurohopes is here. We decided to spent the first day of the U18 Albert Schweitzer Tournament at the GBG – Halle for the group A/B games:

Group A (GBG – Halle):

England – Argentina 68-63

The opening game was between England and Argentina with Akodo and Gordon that lead England to an early advantage in the first two quarters. Jules Akodo (PG, 195 cm, 1996, Union Olimpija) was a factor under the board (7 rebounds) and he also improved his offensive game than last season with interesting playmaking intuitions (5 assists) but his shots selection needs to be enhanced (3/7 from 2). Pharroh Gordon (PG, 182 cm, 1996, Manchester) played a solid offensive game with 8/14 from the court with an impact also at rebound (6 rebounds). Interesting size for big man Aaron Menzies (C, 216 cm, 1996, Manchester): still raw and without aggressiveness (just 3 rebounds) but with soft hand from mid range. We’ll see today how he will fight againstMarkusson from Sweden. Argentina played a poor game, shooting 24/67 from the court (4/26 from 3) and grabbing 34 rebounds (against the 45 from England). The team showed his pride only in the last quarter with a 23-11 partial, leaded by Lucio Gabriel Delfino (SG, 196 cm, 1996, Santa Fe) but the talent and physical difference between the two teams was too obvious.

 

England: Gordon 19 pts, 6 rebs; Akodo 18 pts, 6 rebs; Ogunleye 10 pts + 6 rebs

Argentina: Acuna 14 pts, Delfino 11 pts, 6 rebs, 4 ass; Gramajo 11 pts, 5 rebs;

 

Serbia– Sweden 92-72

Ludvig Hakanson (PM, 190 cm, 1996, FC Barcelona) tried to lead Sweden with 26 points to an incredible upset over Serbia but Vucetic and company played with confidence all the 40 minutes. Stefan Peno (PG, 197 cm, 1997, FC Barcelona) was the biggest surprise: he played a wise game, leading the team with intelligent choices in tough moments, showing at the same time his great offensive potential with no look passes and down town triples. From Serbia  Vasilije Vucetic (C, 205 cm, 1996, Union Olimpija) showed interesting low post moves and Danilo Ostojic (SG, 200 cm, 1996, Crvena Zvezda) showed that he is a reliable shooter. From Sweden keep your eyes open on big man Mattias Markusson (C, 215 cm, 1996, Alvik) with a notable physical structure but still naive in defense. Good offensive skills also from Sheriff Drammeh (PG, 186 cm, 1996, Sodertalje Knigths).

 

Serbia: Vucetic 17 pts; Pavlovic 14 pts, 9 rebs; Peno 12pts, 6 rebs, 4 ass.

Sweden: Hakanson 26 pts, 2ass; Drammeh 12 pts; Lightner 10 pts.

 

Group B (GBG – Halle):

Turkey – Slovenia 95 -79

Turkey is probably one of the best teams here in Mannheim with Egemen Guven (C, 208 cm, 1996, Pinar Karsiyaka) and Ayberk Olmaz (C, 208 cm, 1996, Ulker) that were unstoppable against Slovenia and probably will be difficult for every team to handle this big man duo.  Furkan Korkmaz (SG, 197 cm, 1997, Efes) -at the pic- played in control scoring 17 points with 3-4 incredible dunks with also 7 steals. Slovenia was too chaotic in offense with 28 turnovers and just Tilen Kodrin (SF, 202 cm, 1996, Union Olimpija), that is the talented player in the team, and Sandi Grubelic (PG, 189 cm, 1996, Grosuplje), good 3 points shooter from the dribble (4/7), tried to recover the gap in the third quarter but Turkey was too strong for them today.

 

Turkey: Guven 17 pts, 5 rebs; Korkmaz 17 pts, 7 stls; Ulubay 11 pts.

Slovenia: Kodrin 18 pts; Grubelic 13; Leskovar 11 pts, 6rebs.

 

Germany – Japan 115 - 73

Easy game for Germany that overcome Japan with a 38-13 partial in the first quarter of the game with the Asiatic team that seemed not ready for this kind of contest. Lars Kamp (PG, 190 cm, 1996, Baskets Paderborn) played a good game with an impressive 9/13 from the court (6/8 from 3) and also Niklas Kiel (PF, 208 cm, 1997, Baskets Paderborn) showed good offensive attitude, good vision of the court and good pivotal foot fundamentals. Today probably we’ll understand the real value of Germany in a tough game against Slovenia.  

 

Germany: Kamp 24 pts; Agva 22 pts, 13 rebs; Keßen 19pts, 7 rebs.

Japan: Hachimura 15 pts, 5 rebs; Hayashi 11 pts; Motomura 11 pts.

 

These are the results from Groups C/D:
 

Group C (Waldesporthalle):

Ukraine – France 81-74

Ukraine Mikhailiuk 23 pts, 5 rebs; Kobets 19 pts, 7 rebs; Miroshnichenko 11 pts.

France: Wallez 21, 8 rebs; Delarboulas 15 pts; Catherine 9 pts.

 

USA – Chile 92-71

USA: Newkirk 22 pts, 4 rebs, 4 ass; Happ 17 pts, 6 rebs.

Chile: Aguirre 17 pts, 4 rebs; Haase 12 pts, Galvez 10

 

Group D (Waldesporthalle):

Italy – China 92-51

Italy: Flaccadori 20pts; Severini 14 pts, 9 rebs; Donzelli 11 pts, 6 rebs.

China: Zhao 22 pts, 4 rebs; Wang 6 pts; Hu 6 pts.

 

Spain – Bosnia 85-55

Spain: Garcia 28 pts; Bauza 18 pts; Sima 14 pts, 12 rebs.

Bosnia: Dedovic 12 pts; Beronja 10 pts, 5 rebs; Pilavdzic 7 pts.

 

Schedule of today:

14:00 Sweden – Argentina and Italy – Bosnia

16:00 Japan – Turkey and Chile – France

18:00 England – Sweden and China – Spain

20:00 Slovenia – Germany and Ukraine - USA

 

Today we’ll be in Waldesporthall for Group C/D games.