Unstoppable Aldama headlines the All-Star Five of the FIBA U18 European Championship

VOLOS (Greece) - The FIBA U18 European Championship 2019 winners deserved additional praise and got it with two players selected to the All-Star Five, along with one player each from all other Semi-Finalists.

Santi Aldama led Spain to gold with 18.0 points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 2.3 blocks and 1.9 steals per game, giving him a tournament-high 22.9 efficiency per game, and the award for the Most Valuable Player of the FIBA U18 European Championship in Volos, Greece.

Aldama narrowly edged out his teammate Usman Garuba for the MVP award, as the big man averaged 15.6 points, 12.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per outing, grabbing six double-doubles in seven games in Volos. Garuba has now played 21 games in FIBA youth events and had 18 double-doubles to his name.

Joining the two Spaniards in the All-Star Five were Alperen Sengun of Turkey, Nikolaos Rogkavopoulos of Greece and Ziga Samar of Slovenia. Sengun had 11.9 points and 9.0 rebounds in seven games for Turkey, Rogkavopoulos finished with 11.9 points and 8.4 rebounds for the fourth-placed hosts, while Ziga Samar made history for Slovenia.

The point guard's stat line for the tournament says 11.6 points, 8.6 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game, but Samar became only the sixth player with a triple-double at this level, with 14 points, 14 assists and 10 rebounds against Great Britain in the Quarter-Finals. Samar narrowly missed out a chance to become the first man with two triple-doubles at the same event, after his 8-point, 12-assist, 10-rebound showing in the Third-Place Game.

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