European Prospects

With just a few days to go, the teams participating to the Albert Schweitzer Tournament 2010 have started their preparation phase for one of the major events of the year. We take a look at the main results and information we could get over the last days.

• Greece and New Zealand were the first nations to start their preparation games as both countries met in Athens over the last days to play each other three times. Greece easily dominated the three match-ups 89-54, 96-38 and finally 98-56. Greece saw different players as their top scorers with Spiros Motsenigos in the opener, Ioannis Molfetas in the 2nd one and Marios Dermitzakis and Vasileos Kavvadas in the third game.
• New Zealand traveled to France and will play two games against one of the favorites of the tournament in Alsace as France will face the Junior Tall Black today and tomorrow Thursday. France will have to play without Hugo Invernizzi, Vincent Pourchot and Axel Toupane who are either injured or cut from the original selection that missed already long-term injured Leo Westermann.
• Turkey won twice against Bulgaria during the preparation. In the first game, a clear 72-47 result gave the Turkish team the opportunity to test all their players. Can Korkmaz and Yigitcan Vardal finished as top scorers of the game with 11pts, while Ramazan Tekin had 10. In the second game, Turkey defeated Bulgaria 76-67 behind another 17 points of Vardal and 11pts 4asts by Safak Edge. The team will travel today to Germany.
• Spain assembled their players only today in Valdemoro for a first team practice under new head coach Ricard Casas. The team will play without Miki Servera and Malick Fall who are both retained in Spain for Club team duties.
• Germany U18 beat Australia in their preparation opener yesterday evening 65-50 in a very physical game. The team of coach Kay Blümel played without three potential starters as Philipp Neumann, Patrick Heckmann and Kevin Bright did not dress because of recent injuries and were preserved. However, the German team managed to win against the Aussies behind a big effort of Bill Borekambi who finished with 17 points and 12pts of Lars Wendt. Germany will play the tournament without Ole Wendt who got injured on his knee in the last NBBL Play-off game and Jarelle Reischel who was retained in the United States.
• Germany U18 will play in a highly anticipated game against Germany U17 today Wednesday in Mannheim while Australia will match-up with the ProA team of USC Heidelberg. On Thursday, the Emus will play against Japan in a last test while Germany U18 will face Team USA in the US Sports Arena for the only US preparation game.