Youth international basketball competition qualification round starts
The Qualification Round of youth international basketball games has the habit of bringing out the best from teams as they fight for a place in the quarter-final.
Bosnia had to wait until the third quarter before they stepped on the accelerator and turned on the style in beating Denmark (74-61) to book their ticket for the quarter-final.
Hungary controlled the pace of the game in beating Finland (94-72) to also qualify for the quarter-final.
Elsewhere a strong final quarter (22-14) was enough for Greece to beat Germany, while England hustled Slovenia for 40 minutes in winning (68-65).
Israel qualify for quarter-final after beating Croatia (57-51) while Portugal cruised past Portugal (71-41)
You can read more about youth international basketball reports from the following games by clicking on the links or scrolling down the page:
U18 youth international basketball 2009 audio after match commentsBehudin Bajgoric, the head coach from Bosnia and Herzegovina, had some words to say after the match and once again Anesa Hamsic helped with the translation. You hear both voices on the audio.
He explained that he was satisfied that the team would finish in the top 8. But they had other objectives in this youth international basketball competition.
His aim was promotion to division A. Yet the players needed to stay focused for a full game and not to underestimate any team.
However Bajgoric continued that he expected improvement and was hoping that this would be seen in the next game.
Matea Tavic who has been playing in youth international basketball tournaments for Bosnia since she she was 12 years old has also made her international début with the senior team. She spoke with us after the match in German.
She first explained that Tamara Kapor and herself have been playing together at club level for years and that they know each other well, that is why they combine well.
She added that in the match against Denmark, the first half was horrible but they turned things around with a more disciplined performance in the second half.
They stepped up in defense and offensively they started to hit their shots and everything returned to normal.
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U18 youth international basketball 2009 audio after match comments
Deirdre Hayes explained that the team gave the performance she had been looking for since the start of the competition.
She concluded that after a slow first five minutes they played with a lot of heart.
Ella Clark first played for England in a European Championship in 2006 and is in her fourth youth international basketball European Championship.
She was happy that she hit a few shots on this day but explained that the team captains gave the team talk and found words to inspire them.
As they had nothing to lose, they did their best and with this win they were back in the competition and competing.
Jess Hurd spent almost nine months out of the game after picking up an injury in France while playing for England U16 in 2008.
She came off the bench in the final quarter and took on the offensive duties and scored what turned out to be the game winning points.
She is a young lady of few words but is so happy that they won.
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U18 youth international basketball 2009 audio after match commentsEdny Dagan, the Israeli head coach, had lost his voice the previous evening but found some energy to shout at his girls during the second half of the match.
You may have to turn up the volume to listen to the audio.
He first mentioned that it was not a good game to watch and that Croatia was fighting for their life in the game.
His team made things difficult for themselves and the players were under pressure after not starting the game well.
He was of the belief that the team had lost their focus early on (because of not playing the day before) and he had to raise his voice after the interval for them to execute what he wanted.
Shira Shecht is another youth international basketball player that has played in several championships. She is also the captain of team.
She explained it was not their best game but they had to learn how to win such games. She was hoping that they would play better in the next game and that they would do their best to win this championship.
Vladimir Englman, the head coach from Croatia speaking via the team manager, has coached in 10 previous European Championships and expressed his disappointment in the officiating. However this was not the reason for the defeat.
He explained that the players missed critical free-throws and his main players did not play as well as expected.
Ivana Domljanovic from Croatia was disappointed with the loss to Israel.
She said she was looking for ways to motivate her team mates for the remaining two games of the Qualification round because they needed to win to stay in the competition although she knew the games against Denmark and Germany would be tough.
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Youth international basketball news from Division A
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The Qualification Round of youth international basketball games has the habit of bringing out the best from teams as they fight for a place in the quarter-final.
Deirdre Hayes, the English head coach, called for a time-out.
England stepped up defensively and as so often the case at youth international basketball, bodies started to flow all over the place.
England scored 5 straight points and were suddenly back in the game (25-31).
Baric went on one of her runs and went for a three-point shot but was fouled by Clark.
Baric only went 1-of-3 from the line.
Chiemeka hit a trey which was the first of a series of three-pointers from each side. Petra Peric connected for Slovenia before Busch hit another for England.
The two sides went all out for the remaining time with Slovenia going into the interval leading (40-35).
England came storming out at the start of the second period with Clark hitting the shots.
England were back on level terms for the first time since the start of the game (40-40) with less than a minute played after Busch hit a couple of free-throws.
They held the lead briefly but were soon on the back foot as Baric waved her magic and went through the whole English defense (49-46).
Slovenia were able to build up a lead of any significance and went into the final period leading (53-48).
It got very rough in the final quarter as both teams started to put their bodies on the line.
England won that battle to draw level (53-53) with Jessica Hurd scoring in the paint off a pass from Clark with a little over six minutes to play.
The two teams started to exchange baskets and three-pointers as the lead changed hands on every score with England gaining the upper hand (62-61) with 3:45 to play.
Damir Grgic, the Slovenian coach called his second time-out.
The game became more intense and England never said die defense. The inside presence of Hurd allowed England to hold onto the lead (67-65).
The Slovenian coach called for another time-out with 55.8 seconds left on the clock.
The last seconds were tense and Chiemeka fouled out while guarding Baric. But England held on to win (68-65).
