U18 European Championship Women Division B Youth International Basketball in Eilat
The U18 European Championship Women is the highlight of the youth international basketball season for all the players.
The first day of the Division B European Championship finished with no major upsets with most of the more experienced teams winning their games.
In Group A Hungary, hampered by early foul problems, did just enough to beat Romania (55-50).
However in Group B Slovenia was pushed all the way by Portugal before coming out on top (70-66). Finland were forced to work hard as they came from behind to beat Switzerland (56-48).
Switzerland went into the final period leading by 7 points but scored just once in the whole of the last quarter.
U18 youth international basketball 2009 audio after match comments of Bosnia, Norway and Greece will be found after the corresponding match report.
You can read more about the games from Groups C and D by clicking on the following links or scrolling down the page:
U18 youth international basketball 2009 audio after match commentsBehidin Bajgoric, the head coach from Bosnia and Herzegovina, spoke at the press conference after the first match and Anesi Hamsic helped with the translation.
He was impressed by the facilities at this youth international basketball event and praised the organisers for everything.
He explained that first games are always difficult and that they had no idea of their opponents' style of play but they managed to keep to the game plan although nothing was known about Denmark.
The game for them was over by half time which gave them the opportunity to turn the bench and give everybody a chance to play.
He went on to explain that they had room for improvement and that the long shots did not go in. It was not really an issue for this game as it was not possible to display everything in one game.
Hege Blikra (left in picture) ran her heart out in the first game and was hoping that in future games during the international youth basketball competition they would have better luck and the ball would drop more often.
Stolla Beard (above in picture), the Norwegian head coach, explained that they were an unknown factor at this level of youth international basketball and opponents. They did not know much about them but at the same time it was also new for his players.
He added because the team was small and unknown, teams tended to put extra pressure on his players to see how they would react.
In the second part of the interview he went into detail about his thoughts on the loss but remained positive about his team's performance and expected to do better in future games.
He also mentioned that adjustments would be required due to the officials not calling certain calls especially the 3-second rule.
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U18 youth international basketball 2009 audio after match commentsAngeliki Nikolopoulou top scored in the match and also spoke about the first match at the youth international basketball competition in Eilat.
She explained that it was a team performance and that it was a hard game for everybody but everybody remained focused and the objective was reached which was the victory.
Georgious Velissarakos spoke in Greek and explained that the objective was to win some matches and after only 8 days training programme for this youth international basketball event they were satisfied with the result.
He explained that his tactic was to try different things during the game to surprise the opponents.
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It took almost another three minutes before Matea Tavic (right) from Bosnia and Herzegovina got going.
But once she did, she scored 6 quick points and dished out 1 assist as Bosnia outscored their opponents (12-2) to lead (12-4) after five minutes of play.
Norway did not have any answer for Tavic but switched to zone after a time-out from their coach Stoller Baard. They slowed down the Bosnian attack.
Bosnia controlled the pace but the shot of the first quarter came from Maren Austgulen who connected with a shot from beyond the arc.
Bosnia led (16-8) by the end of the first period.
The second quarter was played at a much slower pace.
Norway had put a system in place to stop Tavic. With Edda Ulset finding the basket Norway managed to stay in the game.
Yet Bosnia kept their advantage with the good work of Anesa Hamsic and Amna Fazlic in the paint as they maintained control of the game (26-14).
Bosnia took advantage of foul problems for Matthissen (3 fouls) from Norway to finish the first half with a flourish to go ahead (36-18) at the interval.
Bosnia lost their way offensively as they struggled with the Norwegian defense.
In addition Ulset and Hega Blikra's work off the ball and their unselfish play allowed them to outscore their opponents (7-3) which forced Baigoric Behudin from Bosnia to call a time-out.
Norway brought their deficit down to 10 points (29-39) before Behudin made some tactical changes. This involved taking Tavic out of the game.
Tamara Kapor stepped up for Bosnia as they finished with a flourish to go into the final period leading (49-29).
Bosnia controlled the pace of the final period with Natasa Kajtaz and Irma Rahmanovic doing most of the offensive damage while Norway reverted to long range shooting.
They were rewarded for their efforts as Ingvild Skorpen fired in a shot from beyond the arc.
Bosnia's experience came through at the end as they won the match (68-45).
Most of the scoring came from the free-throw line. However Avigiel Cohen from Israel was able to score from outside for Israel to lead (11-7) with almost five minutes played.
It was a dramatic start for the second period with Denmark losing Ida Krogh (left) after she slipped and and hurt her ankle within five seconds.
The pace did not pick up but the game became more emotional with the lead changing hand several times during the first seven minutes of the quarter (37-37).
Angeliki Nikolopoulou (right) from Greece started to run the show during the second period as Greece managed to control the pace of the game. They opened up the biggest lead of the game (26-20).
Petra Stankovic from Croatia was causing Greece problems with outside shooting. On the other hand Ivana Zubak hit her second trey of the game as Croatia reduced their deficit to 2 points.
However Greece have a fast transition game which gave Efstathia-Zafeira Gkritza all the time required to score back to back baskets as her side finished with a flourish to go into the interval leading (34-28).
The third period was a defensive battle with only 5 points between the two teams in the first five minutes.
Croatia's defense was energy snapping and they tired. Greece took advantage with Maria Karaveli, Nikolopoulou and Zafeira Giampani scoring for Greece to go 10 points clear (41-32).
Croatia finished the quarter stronger. With Premasunac back in action the deficit was reduced slightly (36-43) going into the final period.
Greece were never in difficulty during the last quarter and led by as many as 13 points (51-38) with less than four minutes to play as Croatia ran out of ideas.
The game fizzled out with Greece winning (53-42) and Nikolopoulou scoring 22 points.
