France continue to dazzle, hosts Turkey fall to Spain

IZMIR (Turkey) - The second day of the FIBA U18 European Championship is in the books and five teams remain unbeaten, with France, Israel, Spain, Serbia and Lithuania all securing their second wins.

As if their 52-point win on Day 1 wasn't good enough, France impressed again in Group A and bested that performance with a 104-47 demolition of North Macedonia, moving to 2-0, while North Macedonia are now 0-2.

France also had all 12 players score once again, with the bench chipping in 51 points. Bilal Coulibaly led the way with 19 points, 2 rebounds and 5 steals on a super-efficient 9-of-10 shooting from the field.

They dazzled in all phases of the game, dishing out 30 assists and swiping away 24 steals.

To round out Group A on Day 2, Israel had a very solid 89-61 wire-to-wire win over Great Britain to move to 2-0, while sending Great Britain to 0-2. Point guard Noam Yaacov led the way again for Israel with 18 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals in only 18 minutes of action.

Israel forced 28 turnovers and scored 42 points from them and were able to get out in transition to score 40 fast break points.

In Group B, Germany and Poland had a back-and-forth affair, with both leading for 18:38 and 19:12, respectively. Poland found a way to come out as the team on top, 63-56. Germany led by seven points in the third quarter, but a 15-0 run by Poland flipped the momentum and changed the course of the rest of the game.

That wasn't the only run for Poland, as they also went on an 8-0 run in the final minutes of the fourth quarter to seal the win and move to 1-1, as Germany fall to 0-2.

Poland's Maksymilian Wilczek did a little bit of everything with 9 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals.

Spain stayed unbeaten at 2-0 after getting past Turkey 64-56, sending the hosts to 1-1. Turkey got off to a very slow start, only scoring a single point in the first quarter before finding their stride and outscoring Spain 23-14 in the second quarter to get back in the game.

Spain proved to be more efficient in the end, making one more shot from the field than Turkey (24-23), but doing so with 18 fewer shots. Izan Almansa once again stood out with a double-double for Spain with 16 points and 10 rebounds along with 3 steals and 2 blocks on 8-of-12 shooting from the field.

Berke Buyuktuncel led Turkey in the loss with 20 points and 7 rebounds and knocked down three of the team's six total made three-pointers.

Slovenia started things off in Group C on Day 2 with a 68-58 win over Czech Republic, having four players score in double figures. Easy buckets and points in the paint proved to be a difference, as Slovenia outscored Czech Republic inside, 32-20.

Slovenia are now 1-1, while Czech Republic are 0-2.

Serbia is now the lone remaining undefeated team from Group C after they beat Greece 77-63 in what was the final game to finish today.

Filip Radakovic paced Serbia with 17 points, 8 rebounds, while Djordje Curcic got hot from three-point, shooting 6-of-13 from behind the arc on route to his 18 points. Just about half of Serbia's points came from three-pointers, as they scored 39 points from deep.

Lithuania moved to 2-0 in Group D after taking down Italy 79-61 behind another double-double from Motiejus Krivas, who recorded 17 points, 15 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks.

The game was all tied up at 38 at halftime before Lithuania used a +18 second half to pull away and seal the game. Italy couldn't find their shot from three-point, missing 27 of their 30 attempts. Lithuania took advantage of their 28 free-throw attempts and converted 23 of them, while Italy only got to the line 15 times.

Group D rounded out with Croatia getting their first win of the tournament as they got past Montenegro, 67-56. Andrija Jelavic finished with a 17-point, 12-rebound double-double along with 3 assists and 4 blocks.

Croatia didn't shoot the ball particularly well from the field at about 39 percent, but Montenegro only shot 32.8 percent.

FIBA