7 Luca CESANA (Italy)
29/07/2015
News
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Greece, Italy wins thicken plot in Group F

VOLOS (2015 U18 European Championship) - Victories by Greece and Italy thickened the plot in Group F of the 2015 U18 European Championship while the four Quarter-Final teams from the Second Round Group E are set.

While Turkey and Lithuania were already secured spots in the knockout stage, hosts Greece and Italy handed those teams their first losses of the tournament, at the same time giving them new life in the hunt for the top eight.

Italy started the day of surprises by handing Lithuania their first loss at the championship with a 77-70 victory in Group F.

Luca Cesana scored 22 points and Leonardo Tote added 18 points as Italy moved to 2-2 in the group and greatly improved their chances of reaching the knockout stage.

Lithuania dropped to 3-1 despite 21 points from Tadas Sedekerskis.

Vasileios Charalampopoulos just missed a triple-double with 15 points, 10 assists and 8 rebounds as Greece rose to the occasion to beat Turkey 77-54 while Georgios Papagiannis had a double-double of 15 points and 14 rebounds.

After Italy beat Lithuania earlier in the day, Greece knew they would face a difficult task to reach the Quarter-Finals unless they beat Turkey. Greece now will book a spot in the knockout stage if they beat Russia in the next game.

Italy will finish the group against Bosnia and Herzegovina, who also won to improve to 2-2 by beating Russia 67-61 as Edin Atic scored 20 points and Dorde Aleksic had 16 points.

Russia fell to 0-4 in Group F and will play against relegation.

Turkey and Lithuania will play for first place while Italy, Greece and the Bosnians all still could go to the Quarters or to the relegation round.

Things are much clearer in Group E where France, Germany, Serbia and Spain have reached the Final Eight and Czech Republic and Latvia will move into the Classification games.

Spain beat Germany 76-73 with Sergi Garcia scoring 23 points as the Spanish improved to 3-1 - pulling even with Germany and France.

France suffered their first loss of the tournament as well with Serbia winning 75-64 thanks to a 23-5 third quarter to improve to 2-2 in the group. Borisa Simanic paced Serbia with 27 points while Vojislav Stojanovic had 16 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.

Latvia won their first game in the group as Verners Kohs totalled 22 points in a 92-56 drubbing of Czech Republic for a 1-3 record while the Czechs fell to 0-4.

Meanwhile, Finland moved into sole possession of first place in the Classification Round Group G with a 2-0 record after beating Ukraine, 87-81. The Finns erased a 15-point deficit to win as Edon Maxhuni scored 28 points and Lauri Markkanen collected 27 points and 10 rebounds.

Ukraine dropped to 0-2.

Croatia and Montenegro are even at 1-1 after Montenegro crushed Croatia 91-68 with Milos Popovic picking up 26 points and 11 rebounds for the winners. Croatia were playing without captain Ivica Zubac.

Go to http://u18men.fibaeurope.com/en/ for complete coverage of the 2015 U18 European Championship Div. A.

FIBA