Egypt have made Spain work for the full 40 minutes to record an 88-73 victory in the classification round at the FIBA U19 World Championship in Auckland, New Zealand.
Egyptian star Amro Sherif Abdelhalim (17 points, 7 rebounds) led a physical challenge from the African champions, who threatened until a late 20-8 Spanish run sealed the result. Ultimately it was the class of guards Alex Hernandez (16 points) and Daniel Perez (15) that made the difference.
Egypt controlled the boards (14-9) in the first quarter to spark their aggressive running game, and stunned the Europeans by taking a 20-16 quarter time lead.
A three pointer from Sherif Abdelhalim extended the lead on the first play of the second quarter, but Spain’s zone press defence and stronger rebounding (11-7) slowed the Egyptians into a half court game and saw the Spaniards reclaim the lead.
Though Spain scored 16 points in the paint for the period to just 2, the African champions would not go away, hitting 4 three pointers. Only a buzzer beating three from Alvaro Munoz gave Spain a 43-37 lead at half time.
Spain were the better team in the third quarter, but Egypt refused to lie down, matching their rivals until the last minute of the period, where a Spanish run extended the lead to 65-53 at the last break. Egypt came again, closing to within 59-65 after one minute of the last, but Spain had all the answers and ran out 15-point winners.
Toni Vicens (18 points, 8 rebounds) and Egyptian seven footer Omar Tarek Oraby (13 points, 12 rebounds, 2 blocks) enjoyed an entertaining battle in the low block, as Egypt won the rebound count 42-41.
While Egypt’s lack of depth hurt them late in quarters, they certainly showed they belong on the international stage, and will enter tomorrow’s playoff for 11th place with Kazakhstan full of confidence.
Spain now move on to play European rival Lithuania in what should be a spirited playoff for 9th position.
Osama Mohamed, Egypt :
“(We were so aggressive) because we really wanted to get into 9-10 game, to be in the top ten in the world. We played well, I think we played the first two quarters very well. But Spain won the game with the 3-point, I think they played very well.
It is very good for us, we play against many more teams and we learn very much – how to rebound, how to box out, how to play defence, to improve our team work – we learn a lot of things.
The game (against Kazakhstan) will be for 11th and 12th spot, so this match will be strong.”
The classification games for Saturday at the North Shore Events Centre are as follows:
Kazakhstan v Egypt; 9:00am (for positions 11 and 12)
Spain v Lithuania; 11:15am (for positions 9 and 10)
Argentina v France; 1:30pm (for positions 5-8)
Puerto Rico v Canada; 4:00pm (for positions 5-8)
The semi final line up at the North Shore Events Centre is as follows:
Australia v Greece; 6:15pm
USA v Croatia; 8:30pm
FIBA