Saric leads Croatia to U18 European Championship

Dario Saric scored 39 points and gathered 11 rebounds in todays U18 European Championship as Croatia beat Lithuania, 88-76. Lithuania tried to stop Saric in various ways, but even double teams under the basket couldn’t keep the talented Croatian from scoring at will.
Croatia jumped to a 10-point margin early in the first quarter, only to have Lithuania fight back to within four. A three-point at the buzzer extended the margin back to seven. Out of the gate in the second quarter, Croatia dropped in two three-pointers to push their advantage to 13. Marius Grigonis of Lithuania and Saric both pick up their third personal fouls during the fourth minute of play in the second, putting both squads in a potentially difficult personnel situation. As soon as Saric sat down, Lithuania grabbed a turnover and a fast-break layup, then a well-executed give and go the next time down the court, cut the lead to five with 1:40 to play in the first half. Saric returned, but couldn’t play help defense for fear of his fourth personal, letting Jokubas Gintvainis drive the lane for an uncontested layup. Saric countered with a jumper of his own and then Lukas Lekavicius held the ball for a final shot, driving the key, pulling up for a jumper with four seconds to pay to cut the lead to three at the half, 36-33.
Croatia had three starters in foul trouble, Saric, Karlo Lebo and Karlo Zganec, all starting the second half with three each. Grigonis had three of his own, but was the only Lithuanian player in foul trouble, setting up a potential strategy of going at the guys with the fouls, but Lithuania would never take advantage of the situation, even looking like they were avoiding driving at guys with fouls late in the game.
As the second half started Lithuania took the lead 40-38 on a Gintvainis three-pointer with 7:51 to play, never to see the lead again as the Croatians fired off 10 straight points by Saric, Zganec and Jakov Mustapic, to go up 48-40. Justas Tamulis got the hosts back in the game with a three-pointer and then a layup off a steal, cutting the margin to one. The game of streaks continued as Croatia went on another run of their own, sinking six straight to go up 54-47. Simas Raupys nailed a three to cut the lead back to four. Tamulis closed out the third quarter with another shot behind the arch to send the game into the final frame with Croatia up 58-53.
The fourth quarter saw a lot of forced shots and frustration, even getting two guys, one from each team, ejected for a scuffle while boxing out on a free throw. Raupys and Zganec got tangled up trying to fight for position, then an a elbow to the head trying to break free and a forearm putting Zganec on the group prompted the officials to send both players to their locker rooms early. Lithuania couldn’t get the margin inside six despite Croatia taking a number of questionable shots late in the quarter when they should have been managing the clock. On a few occasions they were launching three-pointers with over 10 seconds on the shot clock. Lithuania never took advantage of the fact that Saric wasn’t helping on defense underneath and Croatia had four guys in foul trouble for most of the second half.
Saric finished the game with 39 points and 11 rebounds, he averaged 25.6 points and 10.1 rebounds per game during the tournament. Tomislav Gabric contributed 14 points, Mustapic picked up 11, Mislav Brzoja and Dominik Mavra both ended with 10. Mavra finished the tournament 25 of 26 from the free throw line, missing his first with :39 to play. Grigonis paced Lithuania with 17 points, while Gintvainis and Tamulis added 15 each.
Saric and Grigonis were named to the All-Tournament team with Serbia’s Jikola Jankovic and Nikola Radicevic, and Russia’s Mikhail Kulagin. Saric was named MVP of the tournament.

7 Comments

  1. Frank the tank on August 20, 2012 at 16:40

    Totally agreed

  2. Willy on August 20, 2012 at 14:10

    The Lithuanians were better during the tournament. I can’t understand how they failed that down against croatians!!

  3. Paul on August 20, 2012 at 09:01

    Great job by Croatian kids. Great generation, they won Cadet European Champinship in Montenegro. They also missed two top level player, Mario Hezonja and Marko Arapovic. Šarić was amazing again!!!!!

  4. Miguel Angel Estebarria dos Nascimiento on August 19, 2012 at 22:33

    Drazen Petrovic was born in 1964.
    Dario Saric in 1994.
    30 years later, Croatia has the best prospect in the world with the exception of the United States.
    This guy in 4-5 years will be an All Star in the NBA.

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