Chasing history: Can anyone match Komazec, Rubio or Aharoni

UDINE (Italy) - Records are made to be broken - but are all records able to be broken? Going back through the FIBA U16 European Championship archives leaves one to wonder if anyone can even match some of the all-time great performances.

The European cadet competition started in 1971 and was held every two years until 2003, when it was switched to an annual event. FIBA's records included only points of the main statistics until 1995, when rebounds, assists, steals and three-pointers among others were added. Blocks joined the statistic party in 2001.

Here is a look at who tops the all-time marks. 

Komazec the all-time scoring king with 52 points

Arjan Komazec's career included some major highlights, including winning the FIBA Basketball World Cup 1990 with Yugoslavia as well as the FIBA EuroBasket 1991, to go with third place for Croatia at the 1994 World Cup and silver at the Men's Basketball Olympic Tournament 1992. But the Zadar native also owns a special place in U16 European history as he still is the record holder for most points in game, torching Spain for 52 points in the Semi-Finals in 1987 en route to the title. Komazec averaged 28.4 points for the tournament. Ricky Rubio just missed the mark in 2006 as he scored 51 points in the Final - a double-overtime win over Russia. A player scored at least 40 points in a game on 16 different occasions.

Sabonis and Pecarski dominating the glass to the tune of 27 rebounds

The single game rebound mark has been set and matched much more recently. Domantas Sabonis pleased the home fans in Lithuania in 2012 as he grabbed 27 rebounds in the second group action against Poland - though those boards and 15 points were not enough for a win. Marko Pecarski of Serbia evened the mark in 2016 as he collected 30 points and 27 rebounds against Latvia in Classification 9-12 action. Three times has a player corralled 24 rebounds. By the way, Pecarski snagged 13 offensive rebounds in the game against Latvia, which was not the record: Willy Hernangomez, who had 23 total rebounds for Spain against Turkey in a 2010, finished with 18 offensive rebounds.

Aharoni dropped dimes all over the place with 14 assists

The single game assist record fell last summer with Amit Aharoni of Israel dishing out 14 dimes against Montenegro in the Group Phase. That eclipsed the previous best of 13, which had been done three times: by Ricky Rubio in 2006 against Croatia; by Lithuania's  Aidas Kavaliauskas versus Poland in 2011 and by France's Killian Hayes against Sweden in 2017. Aharoni also picked up 13 assists later in the 2018 tournament against Georgia in the Classification 9-16.

Invernizzi was unstoppable with 9 three-pointers

The all-time top shooter in the tournament's history is France's Hugo Invernizzi, who nailed 9 of 11 three-pointers against Serbia in the opening game of 2009 for the all-time mark. The previous record holder was Turkey's Yasin Gorluk, who nailed eight three-pointers against Lithuania in 2003.

Rubio stole the show with 11 steals

Ricky Rubio may not have the points or assist record but the Spanish ace does own the mark for the most steals in a game as he snatched 11 steals against Croatia in the 2006 Semi-Finals. Rubio, who passed Massimo Mazzi's previous record of 10 steals against Belgium in 1997, actually collected a quadruple-double in that game with 19 points, 10 rebounds, 13 assists and 11 steals.

Musli swatted away all weak attempts with 12 blocks

The single game blocks king is Serbian big man Dejan Musli, who picked up a triple-double in group action against France in 2007 with 12 blocks to go with 10 points and 11 rebounds. The only other player with double-digit blocks in a game was Usman Garuba of Spain, who swatted 10 shots to go with 15 points and 11 rebounds for a triple-double in the 2016 Final against Lithuania.

FIBA