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NIJT Finals 2013: Day 4 (LIVE from London)

May 13th, 2013 · 1 Comment

The Nike International Junior Tournament 2012/2013 came to an end on Sunday afternoon with a well deserved victory for Joventut Badalona. The day was crowned though by a great Final of the Euroleague.

Joventut Badalona came to the Final as a favorite after their stellar performances during the group phase. But nobody probably expected that in the end, the result would be that clear. Barcelona had no chance whatsoever to win this game as Joventut executed so well on both ends of the floor. Driven by a balanced team where nobody with the exception of Jose Nogues played more than 25 minutes, la Penya showed how beautiful basketball can be when it is played intelligently and as a team.

Alberto Abalde was once again the main scoring threat from outside for the Catalans while Agusti Sans was everywhere with his 14 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists. Nogues was a little calmer as he netted only 13 points and grabbed 7 rebounds but his overall presence on both ends of the floor was determinant. For Barca, it was the same story than the previous games. Marc Garcia was super effective in corner threes while the versatile Adria Catenys came up with some scores from everywhere. Mario Hezonja was playing but did not have much impact and could not help his team in any way.

The selection for the All-Tournnament team was more or less a joke in our eyes as two player from the disappointing Spars Sarajevo got honored. While we can agree with the selections of Marc Garcia, Alberto Abalde and Agusti Sans, there was no reason to put Djoko Salic and even less Nedim Buza into the All-Tournament team. A player like Jose Nogues was clearly more valid as an All-Tournament team member while also players like Luke Nelson, Milovan Draskovic or Dusan Ristic would have desserved a spot.

In the game for the third place of the Euroleague Final Four, Alex Abrines and Marko Todorovic saw good minutes and used the possibility to score. We will come back on these two later on. The Final game was a beauty. After being down 17 points, Olympiacos came back and won their second Euroleague title in a row. Well deserved and great team basketball.

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