Youth international basketball competition qualification round starts



U18 Division B poster 2009 The Qualification Round of youth international basketball games has the habit of bringing out the best from teams as they fight for a place in the quarter-final.

Bosnia had to wait until the third quarter before they stepped on the accelerator and turned on the style in beating Denmark (74-61) to book their ticket for the quarter-final.

Hungary controlled the pace of the game in beating Finland (94-72) to also qualify for the quarter-final.

Elsewhere a strong final quarter (22-14) was enough for Greece to beat Germany, while England hustled Slovenia for 40 minutes in winning (68-65).

Israel qualify for quarter-final after beating Croatia (57-51) while Portugal cruised past Portugal (71-41)

You can read more about youth international basketball reports from the following games by clicking on the links or scrolling down the page:

Pictures will be added later

Denmark 61-74 Bosnia and Herzegovina

England 68-65 Slovenia

Croatia 51-57 Israel


Bosnia and Herzegovina U18 youth international basketball season looking good

It took just under four seconds for Ida Krogh to open her account. Alberte Dokkedal won the tip-off and the ball fell into the hands of Krogh who had a free run to the basket. Tamara Kapor fired in a three-pointer for Bosnia and the game was launched. The two teams traded basket for basket in a furious exchange (7-7). Bosnia were then caught off guard and Krogh punished them with 4 points. Denmark had the first lead of any significance (13-7) with just over three minutes played. Behudin Bajgoric, the head coach from Bosnia called for a time-out to calm things down. Bosnia managed to slow Denmark down but Bajgoric was forced to call a second time-out as he was not satisfied. Matea Tavic was forced to step up offensively and Bosnia regained the lead after she hit a couple of free-throws. Tavic scored 7 points for her side but Denmark did not panic with Lotte Tobiasen firing in a three-pointer for the last score of the first period (21-19). Denmark continued to push through Krogh at the start of the second period. However it was Dokkedal with a three-pointers quickly followed by a jump shot that gave Denmark a 10-point lead (31-21) with five minutes played in the second quarter. Bosnia were on the back foot. Not even the Tavic-Kapor combination could change things as Denmark went into the interval leading (37-30) with Krogh on 19 points. The start of the thirdd period was electrifying with Dokkedal connecting from the land of many which was repeated by Tavic who then punched the air in relief. However Anne Pedersen scored for Denmark again. Bosnia quickly switched to zone and Tavic scored again but from within the arc. She then went coast to coast and scored with her trademark jump shot finish. The Tavic show was not finished as she went on another sole run but this time she passed the ball out to Kapor who was waiting beyond the arc for an easy three-pointer. Tavic and Kapor combined again for Kapor to score and the game was tied (42-42) with just over five minutes to play in the third period. In a typical youth international basketball way at this level, bodies again started to fly all over the place. Bosnia kept hitting Denmark on the fast break and led (52-46) with two minutes left in this quarter. Tavic ended the scoring by a three-point buzzer beater that she set up herself for Bosnia to lead (60-48) going into the final period and her 15th point of the quarter. The first five minutes of the final period were very defensive as both teams cancelled each other out (68-56). Krogh was given no room to do any further offensive damage and Pedersen fouled out. This allowed Bosnia to move the ball around and set the pace for the rest of the game to win (74-62) and book their ticket in the quarter-final. Kapor led the scoring with 23 points while Tavic finished on 21 points and 8 assists. Krogh led the attack for Denmark with 24 points.

Youth International Basketball Box Scores Box Scores.

U18 youth international basketball 2009 audio after match comments Behudin Bajgoric, the head coach from Bosnia and Herzegovina, had some words to say after the match and once again Anesa Hamsic helped with the translation. You hear both voices on the audio. He explained that he was satisfied that the team would finish in the top 8. But they had other objectives in this youth international basketball competition. His aim was promotion to division A. Yet the players needed to stay focused for a full game and not to underestimate any team. However Bajgoric continued that he expected improvement and was hoping that this would be seen in the next game.


Matea Tavic who has been playing in youth international basketball tournaments for Bosnia since she she was 12 years old has also made her international début with the senior team. She spoke with us after the match in German.

She first explained that Tamara Kapor and herself have been playing together at club level for years and that they know each other well, that is why they combine well.

She added that in the match against Denmark, the first half was horrible but they turned things around with a more disciplined performance in the second half.

They stepped up in defense and offensively they started to hit their shots and everything returned to normal.


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Defense hustle and England beat Slovenia

 England record first win © Womensbasketball-in-france.com

The first two minutes of the game was about defense as both sides made it difficult to score. However Nika Baric opened the scoring for Slovenia and Lea Jagodic made it (4-0). Katrin Chiemeka then opened the scoring from the free-throw line, which was quickly followed up with a pass to Ella Clark to the game with a trey (4-4). Slovenia accelerated the play and Baric kept on scoring. Slovenia's advantage went 10 points clear with a baseline trey from Sandra Japundza (18-7) with just under three minutes to play. England continued to press and despite not hitting free-throws they finished with a 7-0 run after baskets from Clark, Lucy Fish, Renee Busch and Jamila Thompson (15-20). The pace of the game went up in the second period with Slovenia having the better of the exchange to lead (29-19) with 4 1/2 minutes played.  Deirdre Hayes explains new systems © Womensbasketball-in-france.comDeirdre Hayes, the English head coach, called for a time-out. England stepped up defensively and as so often the case at youth international basketball, bodies started to flow all over the place. England scored 5 straight points and were suddenly back in the game (25-31). Baric went on one of her runs and went for a three-point shot but was fouled by Clark. Baric only went 1-of-3 from the line. Chiemeka hit a trey which was the first of a series of three-pointers from each side. Petra Peric connected for Slovenia before Busch hit another for England. The two sides went all out for the remaining time with Slovenia going into the interval leading (40-35). England came storming out at the start of the second period with Clark hitting the shots. England were back on level terms for the first time since the start of the game (40-40) with less than a minute played after Busch hit a couple of free-throws. They held the lead briefly but were soon on the back foot as Baric waved her magic and went through the whole English defense (49-46). Slovenia were able to build up a lead of any significance and went into the final period leading (53-48). It got very rough in the final quarter as both teams started to put their bodies on the line. England won that battle to draw level (53-53) with Jessica Hurd scoring in the paint off a pass from Clark with a little over six minutes to play. The two teams started to exchange baskets and three-pointers as the lead changed hands on every score with England gaining the upper hand (62-61) with 3:45 to play. Time-out slovenia © Womensbasketball-in-france.comDamir Grgic, the Slovenian coach called his second time-out. The game became more intense and England never said die defense. The inside presence of Hurd allowed England to hold onto the lead (67-65). The Slovenian coach called for another time-out with 55.8 seconds left on the clock. The last seconds were tense and Chiemeka fouled out while guarding Baric. But England held on to win (68-65).

Youth International Basketball Box Scores Box Scores.

U18 youth international basketball 2009 audio after match comments Deirdre Hayes explained that the team gave the performance she had been looking for since the start of the competition. She concluded that after a slow first five minutes they played with a lot of heart.


Ella Clark first played for England in a European Championship in 2006 and is in her fourth youth international basketball European Championship.

She was happy that she hit a few shots on this day but explained that the team captains gave the team talk and found words to inspire them.

As they had nothing to lose, they did their best and with this win they were back in the competition and competing.


Jess Hurd spent almost nine months out of the game after picking up an injury in France while playing for England U16 in 2008.

She came off the bench in the final quarter and took on the offensive duties and scored what turned out to be the game winning points.

She is a young lady of few words but is so happy that they won.


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Israel have now qualified for the quarter-final

The first quarter was played rather cautiously with no player dominating the game. Vladimir Englman was frustrated early on and picked up a technical foul. Avigiel Cohen opened the scoring for Israel after almost 90 seconds of tension. This woke Croatia up and they were to take the lead as Ivana Zubak hit a three-pointer (5-4) with three minutes played. The pace slowed down and both sides scored regularly (15-15) with a minute left to play in the first period. Israel upped the tempo and worked the ground as Hadar Gutin hit a trey on the buzzer for Israel to win the first period (20-16). The second quarter was not exciting to watch. Croatia stopped the running game of Israel and went into the interval leading (31-29). The game continued in the same manner all through the third period until Israel took the lead through Eloisa Katz with a minute left in the quarter (45-44). Israel was to score once more to go into the final period leading (48-44). The basketball played by both teams was very complicated for youth international basketball and not that interesting to watch. However Cohen forced Anja Skara into fouling her intentionally on the wing at mid court. Cohen split the pair. But on the very next play Gutin drove to the basket to score (51-45) for Israel with eight minutes to play. Croatia slowly reduced the deficit from the free-throw line with two trips by Carmen Miloglav (52-54). A Cohen baseline jumper ended the barren spell for Israel. With 2:43 the Croatian coach called for a time-out with his side still behind (50-54). Shira Ben Barak picked up her 5th foul with just over two minutes to play as she fouled Miloglav. Miloglav only hit one of her free-throws. Yet Shira Shecht also picked up her 5th foul. But Croatia did not take advantage as Anja Skara missed both free-throws. Nina Premasunac had a chance to score for Croatia but Cohen came up with a block and the chance for Croatia was gone. Cohen was fouled on two occasions in the dying seconds and shot all her free-throws for Israel to lead (58-51) with 7.4 seconds left to play.

Youth International Basketball Box Scores Box Scores.

U18 youth international basketball 2009 audio after match comments Edny Dagan, the Israeli head coach, had lost his voice the previous evening but found some energy to shout at his girls during the second half of the match. You may have to turn up the volume to listen to the audio. He first mentioned that it was not a good game to watch and that Croatia was fighting for their life in the game. His team made things difficult for themselves and the players were under pressure after not starting the game well. He was of the belief that the team had lost their focus early on (because of not playing the day before) and he had to raise his voice after the interval for them to execute what he wanted.


Shira Shecht is another youth international basketball player that has played in several championships. She is also the captain of team.

She explained it was not their best game but they had to learn how to win such games. She was hoping that they would play better in the next game and that they would do their best to win this championship.


Vladimir Englman, the head coach from Croatia speaking via the team manager, has coached in 10 previous European Championships and expressed his disappointment in the officiating. However this was not the reason for the defeat.

He explained that the players missed critical free-throws and his main players did not play as well as expected.


Ivana Domljanovic from Croatia was disappointed with the loss to Israel.

She said she was looking for ways to motivate her team mates for the remaining two games of the Qualification round because they needed to win to stay in the competition although she knew the games against Denmark and Germany would be tough.


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Youth international basketball news from Division A

France in pole position for qualification round

France already in Qualification round

Division B news

The Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland are out of the competition

Israel make home advantage count

Slovenia, Germany and Greece qualify for next round

Israel open with a win with 28 points from Cohen

U18 European Championship Women Division B 2009 is hosted by Israel

Return to "What's New" page

Return to the Youth International Basketball Index page

Youth International Basketball picture credits:

womensbasketball-in-france.com
IT Sports - Limor Noah

SDharon Bukor

Date created: 06 July 2009


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