U19 World Cup 2023 All-Second Team, Best coach and Best Defensive Player Awards
A new group of awards were announced at the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2023 including the Best Defensive Player, Best Coach, and U19 World Cup 2022 Second Best Team.
DEBRECEN (Hungary) - A new group of awards were announced at the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2023 including the Best Defensive Player, Best Coach, and U19 World Cup 2023 All-Second Team. The same awards were announced last year at the FIBA Basketball's Women World Cup 2022.
The All-Second Team included Tan Yildizoglu from Turkey, Melvin Ajinca of France, Argentina big man Lee Aaliya, Yang Hansen of China and Tobe Awaka of United States.
Yildizoglu helped Turkey finish third in the U19 World Cup as he led the team in assists (5.3) to go with 9.4 points and 2.3 rebounds.
Ajinca nearly carried France to the title but the team lost in the Final to Spain. He was France's leading scorer with 19.3 points (second-best of the competition) on 49 percent three-point shooting and also had 2.9 rebounds and 1.6 assists.
Aaliya finished fourth in the tournament in scoring (17.1 ppg) and rebounds (9.0 rpg) to go with 1.3 steals and 2.1 blocks.
Yang averaged 12.6 points, 10.4 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 5.0 blocks. He ranked third in the event in rebounds, fourth in assists and first in blocks.
Awaka averaged 11.6 points, 10.6 rebounds and 1.4 steals. He was second in rebounds in the tournament and had the best efficiency rating (18.1) of his team.
Asa Newell of USA was named as the Best Defensive Player as he averaged 7.7 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.3 blocks for the Americans.
The Best Coach award went to Lamine Kebe of France, who guided his team back to the U19 World Cup Final - losing only two games, both of them to Spain.
FIBA