Boys for a medal, “cleaned” Turkey and… left for the semi-finals!

In his semi-finals Eurobasket U16 hosted at Heraklion she qualified Children’s National Team. With an amazing appearance and character of a winner in the fourth period, Turkey prevailed 75-65 in the “Two Aorakis” and made an appointment on Friday against Spain, now entering the medal zone.

Leader of his team Yannis Kalambokis was the Alexandros Tsonis of Duke with 18 points (3/3 three-pointers), 11 in the last period, 4 rebounds and 6 assists. Followed by Chrysostomos Hatzilambrou of Aris with 18 points and 9 rebounds. In the other semi-final, France will face the winner of Serbia-Israel.

The match:

OR Our national team entered the match quite strongly and with the help of her excellent defense and many steals, she was ahead 8-4 in the first five minutes of the match, during which Elias Chaidemenos had five points. Then the Turkey countered and with Ziyaetin and Alianak went on an unanswered 7-0 run to overtake (11-8) at 7′. And while the latter continued to dominate the racket, our National Team found two big three-pointers in the last two minutes with Asimenios and Khatjilambros, with the first quarter coming to an end in absolute balance (16-16).

The rhythm was similar for most of its time second periodwhere the two teams constantly exchanged successive “hits”, without either being able to escape the score. On the one hand, the “blue and white”, having him in excellent condition Caressedconsistently threatened from behind 6.75m, at the same time as the Turks were exploiting their superiority in “painted” constantly going inwards. And while Greece was ahead with 28-24 at 15′, suffered a big “short circuit” in defense and attack, which Turkey turned into a 13-0 run for the +9 and 37-28 in the 18th minute, thanks to the amazing Alianak (11 points at halftime). His entrance Tsoni on the floor he helped our national team to “break out” offensively, where thanks to a quick 6-0 run in the last minute, he went to the locker room back to score with 37-34.

Get it to GO! ????

The crowd is on their feet in Heraklion as Alexandros Tsonis gets a half-time buzzer beater! ????#U16EuroBasket pic.twitter.com/EbYIPnmfLN

— NextGen Hoops (@NextGenHoops) August 14, 2024

The third quarter, unfolded in a performance for a role for the representative band of our country! With steel defensethe boys of Giannis Kalambokis had an amazing season, where the individual score was 20-8 in our favor! With Chrysostomos Hatzilambros in… the twilight zone with 14 points (!), our national team managed to keep Turkey to 2 points in the first eight minutes (!), thus building a significant difference in view of continuation, as the quarter ended at +9 and 54-45!

Vasileios Chartonas wants all the smoke! ??#U16EuroBasket x @HellenicBF ???? pic.twitter.com/0HxSxF89lX

— NextGen Hoops (@NextGenHoops) August 14, 2024

However, the reaction of the Turks did not take long to come, after Albert Koch’s team entered strongly and determinedly in the fourth and final period. Which resulted in him running one impressive 13-3 run in the first 4 minutes of the quartertaking after hour head to score (58-57). His three-pointer Alexandrou Tsonis (59-60) in the middle of the quarter gave a huge “breath” to our National team! In fact, this shot was also the trigger for the outbreak of our internationals, since with a goal-foul by Skleros and another three-pointer by Tsonis, Greece went at +6 for 66-60 at 37′! In fact, a little later, the Greek guard hit another three-pointer making it 69-62, with the water entering the… groove and our national team taking the victory with the final 75-65!

The quarters: 16-16, 37-34, 45-54, 65-75.

See here the statistics of the match.

Greece (Kalampokis): Tsonis 18 (3/3), Venetidis, Chaidemenos 11 (2), Papanikolaou, Hatzilambrou 18 (3), Skliros 7, Cartonas 10 (1), Thomakos, Barbagiannis 1, Asimenios 7 (1), Stamoulos, Pagoulatos 3 (1) )