Five burning questions on the final day of competition in Novi Sad

NOVI SAD (FIBA U16 European Championship 2018) - The last eight games of the championship are set to take place on Saturday, with three of them getting special treatment and national attention.

It will, of course, be the Final, plus the Third-Place Game, and we will also keep an eye out on the relegation battle, with Slovenia and Montenegro getting another chance to dance with each other in Serbia.

Can Croatia add a fifth member to their Connect Four Crew?

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to realize what is going on when you are scouting Croatia. Roko Prkacin, Boris Tisma, Ivan Perasovic and Matej Bosnjak do all the heavy lifting for coach Mile Karakas, and even though everybody knows it, there simply is no way of stopping it. 

The quartet will need help from their starting point guard Filip Paponja, who took a blow to the head late in the game against France in the Semi-Finals, but was cleared out of hospital and is likely to run the point in the Final. Luksa Buljevic's shot was off in the Semis, but if he can add a three-pointer or two, Croatia could be back on top.

 
The last time it happened, Mario Hezonja was starring on the team in 2011. In fact, Croatia are the last team that won back-to-back FIBA U16 European Championship titles, as the Dario Saric-led generation won in Montenegro in 2010.

"We wanted to play against Turkey in the Final, not because it was an easier draw for us, but because they were the ones who beat us on the first day of competition here, after we were up by 11 in the last quarter. But it's Spain, and we don't mind, we'll be ready for them," lefty sharp shooter Boris Tisma said.

Can Alderete and/or Dominguez go off again?

Spain were at the top two summers ago in Poland, led by MVP Usman Garuba. His return to the FIBA U16 European Championship made headlines this summer, as you would imagine with somebody averaging 16.3 points, 11.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.7 blocks in 22 minutes per game.

But Garuba cannot do it by himself. He got a lot of help from Pau Tendero earlier in the tournament, but over the last two games, Hector Alderete and Ruben Dominguez have been his sidekicks. Shooting guard Dominguez has a perfect timing for his second-half three-pointers that burned Greece and Turkey.

 

Alderete, on the other hand, is a true team captain. A 25-point outing in the Semi-Finals felt like he had scored 50 with the final score of 67-57 against Turkey.

"Croatia are going to be a tough opponent for us, they are really good. We played against them in the preparation period, we won by double digits, so we know what to expect," Alderete offered after the Semi-Finals.

Is there anything left in the tank for France?

It all went south in the very first minute of their game against Serbia in the Quarter-Finals. France lost Daniel Batcho, arguably their best player to that point, to a knee injury after a nasty fall on the second play of the game.

Yvan Ouedraogo and Moussa Diabate had to take all of the rebounding and scoring duties under both rims, and after a couple of physical battles with the Serbian and Croatian bigs, one has to wonder is there any power left to take on Turkey, and their twin towers Furkan Haltali and Alperen Sengun, plus Adem Bona off the bench.

Can Turkey overcome heartbreak?

For Dervis Gokhan Guney, it will all be about getting his boys back to the mental toughness level needed for a third bronze medal in the last four years. Turkey played Spain perfectly in the Semi-Finals, limiting them to 67 points, but the shots weren't falling, keeping them beneath 60 points for the first time in Novi Sad.

It probably was a sleepless night for the Turkish squad, and it will be interesting to see how they respond in the Third-Place Game. Going home with a win, even if it's not the Final, surely feels way better than ending a dominant run with a couple of defeats to the big guns of Spain and France.

Which individual explosion will keep the nation in Division A?

We also have a huge relegation game on our hands, and once Slovenia and Montenegro take the court in Serbia, the crowd will expect a lot of scoring out of two of the best individuals we have seen here. Montenegro's Fedor Zugic is the leading scorer of the championship, averaging 19.5 points per game at the tender age of 14!

But Slovenia's Alen Malovcic is not far behind. With 19.2 points and 9.0 rebounds per game, he is currently the third in scoring and 10th in rebounding in Novi Sad. This will be the second matchup between Slovenia and Montenegro, the first one was a one-sided affair that went west, not south from Novi Sad.

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