FIBA Basketball

Spain pick apart Montenegro for ticket to Bratislava, headline Quarter-Finalists

Review

BRATISLAVA/PIESTANY (FIBA U18 European Championship 2017) - There are now only eight teams remaining in the race for the medals in the FIBA U18 European Championship 2017.

BRATISLAVA/PIESTANY (FIBA U18 European Championship 2017) - There are now only eight teams remaining in the race for the medals in the FIBA U18 European Championship 2017 with Spain making a strong statement by blowing out Montenegro to book a place in the Quarter-Finals.

Having jumped out to a double-digit lead in the opening quarter, the Sergi Martinez and Josep Puerto-led Spain answered all remaining questions by outscoring their opponents 29-7 in the second period and cruising to a convincing 87-61 victory.

Martinez and Puerto had identical 17-point and 9-rebound contributions for the winners, while Marko Simonovic finished the game with 20 points and 5 boards for Montenegro.

No pudo ser... Chicos, habéis caído hoy, pero llega el momento de la verdad 💪💪 Mañana, octavos de final. #SomosEquipo #U18M #FIBAU18Europe

A post shared by Selección Española Baloncesto (@baloncestofeb) on Aug 1, 2017 at 11:28am PDT

The Spanish side now face France, who took care of Finland 66-58 in their own Round of 16 pairing with big man Ivan Fevrier scoring 17 points and grabbing 5 rebounds for the winners.

Earlier in the day, Ukraine guard Issuf Sanon nearly knocked out Turkey with an explosive 27-point performance, but the still-undefeated Group A winners held on to the Quarter-Finals ticket with a nail-biting 78-76 win thanks to Eray Akyuz coming up big in crunchtime.

Greece, who will now match up with Turkey, used a late run to leave Latvia in the dust, triumphing 71-65, as Dimitrios Moraitis scored 26 points and Georgios Kalaitzakis added 15 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocked shots.

Juniorska reprezentacija Srbije plasirala se u četvrtfinale Evropskog prvenstva za igrače do 18 godina koje se održava u Slovačkoj, pošto je sigurnom igrom savlada Nemačku 71:64 (26:13, 11:14, 20:25, 14:12). Najbolji u pobedi Srbije je bio košarkaš Mega Bemaxa Nikola Mišković sa 19 poena i 9 skokova dok je Aleksa Matić postigao 3 poena. Juniorska reprezentacija Srbije će se u četvrtfinalu u petak od 20:15 sastati sa reprezentacijom Bosne i Hercegovine. Foto: FIBA Europe #MegaBemax #malivelikiklub #fibau18europe

A post shared by KK Mega Bemax (@kkmegabemax) on Aug 2, 2017 at 12:35pm PDT

Having struggled with his shooting in previous games, forward Nikola Miskovic got out of his cold spell to guide Serbia to a 71-64 victory against Germany, scoring 18 points and grabbing 9 rebounds.

Meanwhile, their next opponents Bosnia and Herzegovina used a 14-0 run to close out the game and nip Slovenia 65-59 right at the death to advance in spite of a combined 11-of-38 shooting night from Sani Campara and Njegos Sikiras.

Lithuania, who sent tournament hosts Slovak Republic packing to Piestany with a 79-55 victory, will now face the on-a-roll Italian side after they demolished Russia 82-64 in a one-sided contest, marked by the return of captain Alessandro Pajola from injury.

You can follow how the day's play unfolded on Live Updates, and check out full replays on YouTube.com/FIBA.

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