FIBA Men U18: Round 2 begins with two unbeaten
The FIBA Men U18 European Championships rolled into Round 2 on Monday after Round 1 concluded on Saturday. Currently, there are two unbeaten teams in Groups E and F, Turkey and France, but with Turkey having lost in overtime to Ukraine, France is the only truly undefeated team in four games.
Coming out of Groups A and B, the following clubs comprise the newly formed Group E: France, Lithuania, Russia, Serbia, Czech Republic, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Group F is made up of the top three teams in each of Group C and Group D and consists of: Turkey, Latvia, Spain, Croatia, Italy, and England.
The top four teams in each group after three games, plus the two games they previously played against the teams that came with them out of their original group, will move on to the quarterfinals.
Group E
Lithuania – Czech Republic, 96:57
Lithuania got out to an 18:0 lead on their way to a 96:57 pounding over the Czech Republic to open their Group E play. They finished the first quarter with a 30:9 lead. The Czechs got the shooting legs under them in the second and outscored Lithuania 20:18, while still facing a 48:29 deficit at the break.
The Lithuanians took control back in the second half, outscoring the Czechs 48:28 to wrap up the contest with a 39-point victory.
Ricarda Verbickas and Haroldas Saprykinas led the way for Lithuania with 17 each and Lukas Grabauskas added 14. Martin Peterka dropped 15 for the Czech Republic.
France – Bosnia and Herzegovina, 60:42
France used a familiar tactic for them, pounding the ball in the paint, to build an early lead and hold on through out to pick up their first Group F lead over Bosnia and Herzegovina, 60:42.
The French opened the contest getting up 18:10 at the end of the first frame and held a 31:26 advantage at the break. France dominated the second half, outscoring BIH 29:16, including holding them to 4 points in the fourth quarter.
Axel Bouteille led France with 18 points, while Stefan Lakic and Davor Karamatic were top for BIH with 12.
Serbia – Russia, 102:57
The final Group E contest was a dominating performance by Serbia over Russia, that put +45 points on the Serbs point differential with a 102:57 victory.
Serbia was able to put some distance between them and the Russians in the second frame by outscoring them 18:7 to take a 39:25 margin into the dressing rooms at halftime. It was the second half where the Serbians started to roll, dropping in 63 points during the second 20.
Serbia was led by a game-high 21 points from Aleksa Jugovic and a 20P/10R double-double from Milenko Veljkovic. Vlacheslav Fedorchenko paced Serbia with 14.
FIBA Men U18 European Championships
Group E Matches[matches league_id=33 group=E template=summary dateformat=”M. j, Y”]
Standings – Group E[standings league_id=33 group=E show_website=false template=nolink]
Group F Matches[matches league_id=33 group=F template=summary dateformat=”M. j, Y”]
Standings – Group F[standings league_id=33 group=F show_website=false template=nolink]