2014 U18 Women's European Championship

[carlo]

2014 U18 Women's European Championship will be held in Matosinhos (POR), July 17-27.

Official Site

This year's tournament will qualify the top five teams for the 2015 U19 World Championship, besides Russia which is the host nation.

Spain is the 2013 defending champion.

[carlo]

Italian final roster:

Alessia Cabrini, G - 178 cm
Ylenia Cordola, Fw - 183
Martina Kacerik, G - 179
Arianna Landi, G - 175
Laura Reani, C - 183
Isabel Romano, G - 170
Francesca Romana Russo, G - 174
Marzia Tagliamento, G/F - 181
Stefania Trimboli, G - 175
Sofia Vespignani, PG - 165
Annalisa Vitari, C - 187
Cecilia Zandalasini, SF - 183

Zandalasini is the most talented/experienced and Tagliamento in best condition.


Spain has added to its prelim roster three top players from the U17 World championship silver team, MVP Angela Salvadores, Maite Cazorla and Iho Lopez.

[carlo]

Despite what is stated in the FIBA site, it seems that Lithuanian top junior Daila Belickaite is not in the final roster for the championship.
Best players should be Laura Juskaite and Daugile Sarauskaite.

[carlo]

Russia final roster:

Olga AKSENOVA, 1996 - Fw - 187 cm
Elizaveta BRATCHIKOVA, 1996 - Fw - 189
Anna BUROVAYA, 1997 - Fw - 182
Aleksandra KIRINA, 1996 - C - 189
Darya KOLOSOVSKAYA, 1996 - Fw - 181
Anastasiya KUPLINOVA, 1996 - G - 173
Kseniya KUZMINA, 1996 - C - 200
Kseniya LEVCHENKO, 1996 - G -165
Zhosselina MAJGA, 1996 - C - 193
Tatyana SEMA, 1996 - C - 193
Veronika VARLAMOVA, 1996 - G - 179
Valeriya YAKOVLEVA, 1997 - G - 172

Big size team indeed. Curiously, tallest and shortest have the same name.

[carlo]

In the championship openers, Italy beat Czech Republic 70-60 and Serbia won over Lithuania 80-68.

Led by Marzia Tagliamento and Cecilia Zandalasini Italy made the break in the 2nd half and then just controlled the game. 29 turnovers by CZE and 21 steals for ITA made the difference.

Kristina Arsenic (22 pts) and Julijana Vojinovic (19) were Serbia's leading scorers, while Daugile Sarauskaite recorded a double-double with 16 pts and 15 reb.

[carlo]

Showdown of Spain, 102-35 over Croatia. All Spanish players scored, led by Laia Flores and Angela Salvadores. Croatia missing one of its top players Ivana Dojkic.

France beat Russia 55-50 in OT, on a tight game with several lead changes.

[carlo]

Spain needs the OT to beat Poland 76-71.

Monika Radomska (POL) tops all scorers with 28 pts, Laura Quevedo high for Spain with 24 and 69%FG !

In the same Group winless Croatia beat Netherlands 58-57 with a strong Q4. In a three-way tie, NED and CRO are qualified, while unlucky POL goes to the classification round.

[carlo]

Spain and Italy are the only undefeated teams after prelim round and will meet next in the second round.

Both teams look as favorites, with Russia growing and France + Serbia going up and down.

[carlo]

QF have been set:

Russia-Croatia
Spain-Belgium

France-Netherlands
Italy-Serbia

Spain is the only undefeated team, other teams going strong Russia, Italy and France.

[carlo]

Final will be France-Russia, after French team narrowly beat Serbia and Russia edged Spain in hard fought sf games.

Qualification for U19 WC is set:

France, Serbia, Spain, Belgium and Netherlands (Russia host nation).

[carlo]

Russia won the gold over France thanks to a late surge in Q4, after trailing most of the game.
It was Russia's first gold after 10 years in U18 Euro tournament and a sweet revenge of D1 loss to France.
The 2015 U19 WC host nation, Russia made a clear statement as a potential favorite.

Spain took the third place edging Serbia in a hard fought game. Expected to reach the final, Spain wasn't able to repeat previous years success, with a team relying on 1996 good but not great players, missing the services of starting center Nogaye Lo (still recovering from longtime injury) and last-minute reinforced by three U17 players (among them Angela Salvadores, less brilliant than at the recent WC's).

Update: Darya Kolosovskaya (RUS) named MVP.

In Div B, Hungary went undefeated through the tournament to earn the gold and the qualification to Div A, together with Estonia and Israel (a new entry). Hungary has a lot of U17 team good players returning next year and will likely play a high level role in the next U18 Euro.