U20 Lions open European Championship with the win against Turkey

In Gdynia, Poland, our U20 Belgian Lions started off their European Championship (Division A) campaign with a close win against Turkey as they won it 62-64.

From the start the teams were clearly evenly matched, despite the dominance on the boards by Turkey’s big man Salih Altuntas who grabbed 9 rebounds in the first half. Resorting to a zone-defense our youngsters were able to break Turkey’s offensive flow in this low scoring affair and headed into the half-time break with the 35-35 even score.

Noah Meeusen ran the offense and found his teammates on several occasions, including a dime inside to Nathan Missia-Dio who slammed it down to close the third quarter with the 50-52 advantage. Belgium got sloppy in the final quarter however with several turnovers and for a second there it looked like Turkey would regain momentum. Luckily an efficient Ayuba Bryant kept the game close for Belgium (62-60) with 2:40 left in the game. In those final minutes neither team was able to make a difference until Adedayo Polet drained a three to regain the 62-63 lead for Belgium headed into the final minute. Turkey was unable to score against Belgium’s zone defense and Ayuba Bryant went 1/2 from the FT’line to give Belgium the 62-64 victory.

Ayuba Bryant led our young Lions with his 15 pts & 7 rebs, while Nathan Missia-Dio recorded the 11 pts & 12 rebs Double-Double and also added 2 blocks. Len Bastiaenssen finished with 12 pts (4/6 from behind the arc) – all in the first half. Noah Meeusen added 9 pts & 8 asts.

Excellent start of the tournament for our U20 Lions who are in a tough group and will have to face Spain tomorrow, followed by Macedonia on Monday.

For the full roster and schedule go check out our page here.