Without a medal but with their heads held high, the National Children’s National Team completed its participation in Eurobasket U16

With a defeat, but also with her head held high, she ended her presence at Eurobasket U16 which is held in Heraklion, Crete Our National Children’s Teamlosing in the minor final of the event with score 74-65 from Serbia.

Greece found themselves chasing the score from the start of the match, counter-attacking several times to get back in contention bronze medal. In fact, in the last period, he even found himself behind with -16 (49-65) at 34′, however, with passion and stubbornness he managed to reduce to 5 (62-67) in the last minute, finally knowing the defeat in the details.

His children deserve only congratulations Yannis Kalambokiswho with the talent and excellent guidance of their coaches, reached the 4th place in Europe, showing that the future is in front of them and belongs to them!

The first scorer for the “blue and white” was Hatjilambro with 21 points and 4 rebounds, with Tough to put up big battles under the racket, finishing the match with 15 points and 3 rebounds. Pampered and Barbagiannis they added 9 and 6 points respectively.

For the Serbians, who won the bronze medal, the Mega Basket guard did us a lot of “damage”. Vuk Danilovic, finishing the match with 24 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals.

The match:

The beginning of the match was quite balanced, with both teams quite careful in their game, going to organized and targeted attacks. With Skliros on one side and Danilovic on the other in the foreground aggressively, the Serbia led 8-6 of Greece in the 4th minute, before two cheap mistakes came for our country, thus giving the guests the right to find two baskets in the open field for 12-6 at 5′. Skliros and Hatzilambrou reduced the difference in the basket (10-12), with the “Plavi” then responding with a quick 9-0 run for the 21-10 at 8′, thanks to Bejic’s 7 collected points. One minute before the end of the period, Hatjilambro gave an offensive “breath” to our country with a shot from behind 6.75m, with the quarter ending with score 13-23.

Crafty finish! ?????#U16EuroBasket x @KSSrbije ???? pic.twitter.com/S4Z4u5odWt

— NextGen Hoops (@NextGenHoops) August 17, 2024

With two quick baskets from Chartonas and Barbagiannis, our National team reduced to 24-18 at the beginning of the second periodthus showing signs of recovery. Nevertheless, the Serbians continued to control the tempo, playing very well at both ends of the floor. Taking advantage of the “blue-and-white” miss, the visitors went on a 9-1 run in the next four minutes to take the lead for the first time at +14 and 33-19 at 16′. The entry of Chartonas and Chaidemenou significantly helped Greece to improve its image, with our international players slowly “gnawing away” at the difference. It is indicative that with a quick 8-0 run, the representative group of our country gathered the difference to 6 (29-35), with the half-time coming to an end with a score of 32-39.

With the fancy 360′ catch & finish! ??#U16EuroBasket x @HellenicBF ???? pic.twitter.com/Qzm3Ljdmjt

— NextGen Hoops (@NextGenHoops) August 17, 2024

The start of Greece was quite bad and lazy third periodwith our players prone to a series of errors, at which time Serbia found 7 quick points, thus increasing the lead again at +14 (32-46) at 22′. With a very beautiful hook from Tough and a goal-foul by him Caressedthe National team reduced to 46-37, while a little later, another basket by Skliros and a terrible spin move action by Chaidemenos, reduced the difference even more for 48-42 at 25′! Somewhere there, however, the Greek counterattack stopped, with Yiannis Kalambokis’ team scoring only 2 points in the next five minutes. With the excellent Pavlovich to score from everywhere, Serbia managed to increase the difference to double digits in the final, closing the period at +13 and 57-44.

Put him in the SPIN CYCLE! ?????#U16EuroBasket x @HellenicBF ???? pic.twitter.com/q9HGCOLSsj

— NextGen Hoops (@NextGenHoops) August 17, 2024

With a three-pointer by Thomakos in the first minute fourth and last periodGreece cut to 57-47, however, Serbia responded with the same currency and in fact a double, as a result of which it went for the first time at +16 for 63-47 at 33′.

Despite the difficult position in which our Boys had found themselves, they mobilized their big “weapon”, the defense, gradually collecting the difference. In fact, with Chaidemeno, Hatzilambrou and Skliros leading the counter-attack, Greece reduced even 5 points (62-67) 89” before the final, giving new interest to the match. Nevertheless, Serbia was able to manage the lead in their favor and go on to win the bronze medal with final score 74-65.

The quarters: 13-23, 32-39, 44-57, 65-74.

See the match statistics.