U18 European Championship Semis are Set


The semifinals of the U18 European Championships are set for today. Lithuania will play Serbia in the first contest, and Russia will square off with Croatia in the nightcap.

Russia – Spain 58-56
Defending Champion Spain has been given an early exit from the EC U18 Tournament at hands of the squad from Russia, 58-56.
The contest was tied at at 15 apiece the end of the first quarter, but Russia took a six-point led into the intermission 29-23. That Spaniards cut the deficient to two points going into the final period, outscoring Russia 17-13 in the third quarter. The defending champions got down by 10 early in the fourth quarter when Russia scored eight unanswered points, but were able to claw back into contention and tied the score at 56 with 46 seconds left in regulation. Igor Kanygin put an exclamation point on the upset win by scoring on a dunk with 35 ticks remaining. The Russian defense held and gave the squad a ticket to the semifinal contest against the winner of Croatia-Italy. Rostislav Karenin and Igor Kanygin scored 10 for the Russians, while Alberto Diaz and Guillermo Hernangomez contributed 18 each to Spain’s losing effort.

Serbia – Bulgaria 88-79

Stefan Pot scored a game-high 24, including 10 in the third quarter, to help his Serbian squad secure a seat in the semifinals of the European Championship U18 with a convincing 88-79 victory against Bulgaria.

The Serbs jumped out to a quick 9-2 advantage when Bulgaria found themselves throwing the ball away and missing layups early on. The lead grew grew to 12 with 3:17 left in the first quarter, then Bulgaria went on a 9-2 run to close the quarter and cut the led down to five, 20-15. Bulgaria grabbed the lead a minute and a half into the second quarter and built a four-point lead before the Serbs took a one-point advantage into halftime. Serbia opened the second half with a 10-2 run to build a nine-point lead and took a 66-60 margin into the final quarter behind three, three-pointers by Pots. Serbia fought off every challenge Bulgaria mounted to earn an 88-79 victory. Pot led all scorers with 24, Nikola Radicevic added 21 for Serbia. Aleksandar Vezenkov and Denislav Vutev scored 16 and 15 points, respectively, for Bulgaria.

Lithuania – Latvia 65-53
Lithuania moved into the semis with a 12-point win over Latvia. The game remained close through out with Lithuania building a four-point advantage a half. Latvia went on an 11-4 run to take the lead with 3:18 to play in the third quarter, but Lithuania hit a key three-pointer and their free throws to finish out the quarter and Latvia threw the ball away three times, to allow Lithuania to build a four-point advantage going into the final 10 minutes. The teams traded three-pointers to open the fourth, but a stretch of missed shots and turnovers allowed Lithuania to earn their spot in the final four wit a 65-53 victory. Marius Grigonis paced the winners with 16 points and Davis Geks contributed 12 in the loss for Latvia.

Croatia – Italy 76-69
Croatia earned a trip to the semifinals with a 76-69 win over Italy. To get there, the Croatia squad had to figure out how to play without their team leader, Dario Saric, who ran into foul trouble early in the first quarter and sat much of the contest, keeping his over 20-point per game scoring average out of the team’s strategy. Croatia jumped out to an 11-2 advantage in the first quarter, but Italy fought back to within two with 1:55 to play in the quarter. Saric picked up his second and third fouls 19 seconds apart. Croatia ran off nine unanswered point between the end of the first quarter and two minutes into the second, then extended their advantage to nine points before going into halftime with a 35-28 margin. Italy brought the score to within five (37-32) with 7:28 left in the third quarter, then Croatia ran off 10 unanswered points, eventually building a 16-point lead heading into the final stanza. Italy cut the margin to seven with 2:11 left, but Tomislav Gabric hit a three-pointer at 1:24 to push the lead back to 10. Croatia hit six of 10 free throws down the stretch to seal the trip to the semis. Jakov Mustapic led the winners with 16 points, while Karlo Zganec added 15 points and 11 rebounds. Simone Fontecchio chipped in 17 points for Italy.

1 Comment

  1. Gianluca on August 18, 2012 at 19:12

    Did anybody saw Tomislav Gabric play?
    Some of coaches in Italy are saying that he’ll be on of the top Euroleague player in the coming years!! Opinion?

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