The Serbian basketball school is still dominating European Youth basketball. The team of FMP Belgrade won the Nike International Junior Tournament, this year in its seventh edition, by beating the Lithuanian team of Lietuvos Rytas in the finals.
Everything was set this afternoon for a big final in this year’s edition of the Under-18 tournament. While FMP looked a bit rusty at the start of the four-day marathon in Berlin during a close one-point win over the hosts ALBA Berlin, Lietuvos Rytas set the tone on Saturday with a massive blowout over the winners of the Rome qualification tournament, Gran Canaria. And the game was one of the best finals that I have ever seen as FMP beat Lietuvos Rytas by the impressive score of 123-110. The game was marked by highly talented players on both sides of the court, and the high number of points scored was not the result of poor defense but of great plays by promising talent.
FMP dominated the game in the paint via their massive Center Dejan Musli who could not be stopped by any of the Lithuanian big men. Musli finished the game with 31 points and 17 rebounds, giving him an incredible efficiency rating of 46.
Musli was supported inside the paint by PF Branislav Dekic, who finally showed his talent as he was a bit disappointing in the previous games. But player of the game was in my opinion was Nenad Miljenovic, who just three weeks ago turned 16 years old, with an incredible game for a player so young. Miljenovic was close to a triple-double as he scored 17, grabbed 8 rebounds and dished out 10 beautiful assists.
The Lithuanian players tried to put incredible pressure on the Serbian guards throughout the game but it was not enough to get the win. They were led in scoring by left-handed guard Mantas Kadzevicius, who netted 25 points, while Jonas Valanciunas scored 22 together with 13 rebounds.
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