The U18 Men European Championship Division B tipped off yesterday in Varna, Bulgaria. A total of 18 teams will compete for the two spots in the final game, that guarantee promotion to Division A. Here is a brief review of the games from Day 1 of the Euro.
In the opening game of the championship, in Group A Hungary didn’t have any trouble beating Georgia by 28 points of difference – 69:41. Peter Jakab and Adam Kovacs scored 12 points each in Hungary’s win, while Laszlo Polyak added 10.
Bulgaria also started with a win in Group A, demolishing Luxembourg 106:59. Six Bulgaria players finished in double digits, as Benneton starlet Pavlin Ivanov led this group with a game-high of 22 points.
Both games in Group B were interesting until the very end. In the first one, England had an excellent fourth quarter, in order to grab a 65:63 win against the team of Estonia. Rowell Anton Graham had 12 points in England’s win, while three other players added 10 or more points in the win.
Belgium also sealed their win in the closing period against Portugal, as they achieved a 57:59 victory after 16:22 in the fourth quarter. Dorian Marchant scored 13 points for Belgium’s victory.
In Group C we witnessed a blowout and a close game. In the first game Montenegro didn’t have any trouble against Austria, as the final score was 97:38. Marko Mugosa had 21 points and 4 steals for Montenegro.Montenegro’s head coach Miodrag Kadija didn’t even use his best player Nikola Ivanovic for this game.
Romania started off their campaign for Division A with a 66:65 win against Netherlands. After being down by 14 at halftime, the Romanian side managed to turn things around and grab an important W. Andrei Petica led them with 24 points and 6 boards.
In Group D Sweden enjoyed a big win against Norway – the final score in this game was 90:50. Tobias Borg had 18 points, while Jesper Eliasson added 11 and 16 boards for Sweden.
In the last game of the day Switzerland and The Slovak Republic played a really interesting and good game of basketball. The Swiss built a comfortable 12 point lead (30:18) after 10 minutes of play, before Slovakia erupted in the second period, allowing only 6 points against 28 of their own – 36:46 at halftime. Switzerland didn’t manage to do anything until the end, so it was a Slovak win – 83:87. 215-cm tall Boris Bojanovsky had 34 points, 14 rebounds and 5 blocks, while his PG Simon Krajcovic was all around the stats – 13 points, 13 assists, 8 steals and 9 TO. Clint N’Dumba Capela had 21 points and 15 boards for Switzerland.
