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Sonja Petrovic is FIBA Europe Young Women's Player of the Year
Sonja Petrovic is the FIBA Europe young player of the year for 2007. She edged out Spanish U20 international Silvia Dominguez and Halcon Avenida point guard. The voting was conducted in two stages. The first stage was an open ballot with people able to vote online on the FIBA Europe website. The second step was the voting by a panel of judges selected by FIBA Europe from 25 countries. The results from the two steps are then combined and after some mathematical calculation the winner is determined. The open ballot was won by Tamara Abaldefrom Spain. She was the captain of the Spanish U18 team and played in the U19 World Championship team. She was also a member of the Spanish club side Celta Vigo. She is currently in America playing for Lamar University (NCAA). She edged out fellow country women and U20 MVP Dominguez with Petrovic coming third.
The award for the young player of the year remains in the French league because Sandrine Gruda won the award last year but the Spanish league played a big part in her winning this title. Sonja Petrovic played in Spain last season with Barcelona. Unfortunately this club had to stop its activities in women’s basketball. Bourges Basket were quick of the mark and signed her up for the season. During the summer Petrovic was a busy young lady. She won a bronze medal during the U19 World Championship, a gold medal during the U18 European Championship and then played with the senior team at the EuroBasket 2007. In Serbia’s famous victory against Russia in the group game of EuroBasket 2007, Petrovic was not only in the starting five but set the tone of the match as she scored Serbia’s first 5 points. You can listen to her short explanation in the audio section at the end of the article. Petrovic has played in 14 of the 16 domestic games for Bourges this season, has scored 6.2 ppg and has averaged 19 minutes a game. (Note: If you are using Internet Explorer click twice on the triangle)
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Petrovic took most of the votes from the panel of judges while Dominguez came second whereas Abalde dropped down the ranking leaving 3rd place for Jelena Milovanovic (Serbia) of MKB Euroleasing Sopron and Regina Palusna (Slovakia) of MBK Ruzomberok to share third place.
