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Turkish youth international basketball players holding off ItalyChieti has become the home of youth international basketball for Italy in recent year, a factor that makes them difficult to beat. However this did not seem to bother Turkey, who led from the start of the game until the very end to win by a margin of 16 points (65-49).
For Italy Arianna Zampieri scored 13 points for Italy. The Italian side never recovered from their 2-9 start to the game. They did get to within 2 points (9-11) before conceding more ground to finish the first period 7 points down (15-22). Turkey maintained their advantage at the interval at the interval (34-26) which they increased by the end of the third period (50-35). With the home crowd behind them Italy kept their guests scoreless for almost five minutes as they reduced their deficit (42-50). Then Caglar brought the Italian’s comeback to an end with her side to hold off Italy and pace themselves to victory.
Latvia fought back with Anete Steinberga bringing Latvia to within 2 points of France (53-55) with about 80 seconds left to play. Carine Paul saved France from further blushes as she scored the last points of the game (57-55). Sonja Petrovic made sure that Serbia did not allow the Czech Republic to come back in the way France did to them. She finished with a double-double 20 points and 13 rebounds as Serbia won (71-54). In Group F, where the teams play in Sulmona, Spain and Russia both won and hence remain unbeaten. Russia cruised past Montenegro (88-58) while Spain struggled in their victory against Lithuania (66-54). Lithuania and Montenegro can no longer qualify for the semi-final. Belarus left it very late but still ran out winners against Ukraine (56-52). In the classification round Germany dug deep. Despite jitters at the free-throw line at the end of the match hung on to win (66-62) whereas Bulgaria beat Greece in the other match (59-44). Quarter-finalists already known in U20 Women Division BIsrael made things difficult for themselves in this match as Portugal refused to be intimidated. Israel appeared to have the game won when they led by 5 points with a minute to play. The game entered the phase of fouling each other to stop the game clock. Portugal sent the opponents to the foul line. Israel were not good at free-throwing which allowed Portugal to level the match once more (56-56) with about four seconds left to play. Then Hadas Levy from Israel was immediately fouled. She hit the first but missed the second shot. But the rebound fell to Israel and the game was over. This was the last group game for Portugal and this defeat leaves them with no victories. Portugal finished fourth last season. Great Britain join Portugal in the 9th place series as they lost to Hungary (59-35). Great Britain face the Slovak Republic in their last group match. In the other games in Division B: Romania beat Ireland (74-57) and Sweden beat The Netherlands (73-48). Youth international basketball news from the European Championship Women U20 Basketball Day 3 Youth international basketball news from the U20 European Championship Women Division A - Day 2 Return from Youth International Basketball U20 Day 4 to "What's New" page Return from European Championship Women U20 Basketball to youth international basketball index Youth International Basketball U20 Day 4 picture credit:
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Bahar Caglar (left) led all scoring with 21 points for Turkey. She also collected 10 rebounds. Yasemin Dalgalar and Gizem Yavuz finished with 17 points each. Caglar was hurt during the game and was taken to hospital as soon as the game ended. With this victory Turkey remain top of Group E.
In the other games in Chieti, France almost let a 22-point lead evaporate as Latvia staged a late comeback. Sarah Michel hit a trey with about four minutes to go in the third period to give France - what appeared to be - a comfortable lead (48-26).
