GROUP E

Lithuania still dictates tempo. With Spain the only undefeated team on whole championship proved quality in quarter-final group and practically without problems provided visa for medal matches.
After big drama in derby game against France when Martynas Gecevicius (31 pts, 7 rebounds) decided winner with 2 triples in last 1.5 minutes Lithuania simply destroyed Italy and Greece. Besides Gecevicius, Zygimantas Janavicius was also unstoppable (15 pts, 7 assists against France), but this team has impressive starting 5 without weak spot (against Italy: Marius Valukonis (21 pts, 13 rebounds), Pranas Skurdauskas (20 pts, 15 rebounds).

At the other side France showed that they deserve place among 4 best teams with 2 easy wins against Greece and Italy. Match against team from Apennines had great importance, because only a winner had chance to fight for medals. Match was opened till the 25th minute when France had only +3 (71:68), but in last 3.5 minutes they simply erased Italian team from the court with crucial 11-4 series. Antoine Diot (20 pts, 8 rebounds) was a leader in that game, but the most important thing for France is that one of their best players Nicolas Batum finally woke up in 2nd phase (against Lithuania: 17 pts, 12 rebounds, 4 assists; against Greece: 18 pts, 16 rebounds)

LITHUANIA - FRANCE 80-73 (21-16 18-21 19-21 22-15)
GREECE - ITALY 73-70 (15-22 21-18 14-15 23-15)
ITALY - LITHUANIA 71-88 (17-23 12-15 22-25 20-25)
FRANCE - GREECE 86-43 (22-8 18-16 23-15 23-4)
ITALY - FRANCE 72-82 (13-21 19-16 21-22 19-23)
LITHUANIA - GREECE 84-65 (17-15 19-14 25-19 23-17)

1. Lithuania 3/0
2. France 2/1
3. Greece 1/2
4. Italy 0/3

GROUP F

Except problem in game with Serbs, Spain totally dominated in quarter-final group. Trilling Victor Claver (20 pts, 7 rebounds) - Marc Rubio (21 pts, 4 steals) - Joaquin Colom (20 pts, 5 rebounds, 5 assists) broke Serbian resistance in last 2 minutes with crucial 10:3 run.
These 3 players had huge help of Pablo Aguilar (against Turkey: 26 pts, 9 rebounds) and Xavier Rabaseda (against Bulgaria: 14 pts, 5 rebounds) which made this quintet maybe the best on whole tournament.

At the other side Turkey and Serbia played in the last round crucial battle for both sides. After much better performance in first half, Serbian players unexplainably stopped in next 20 minutes and let Turkish side to revenge them for loss on U20 EC.
Sahillioglu (14 pts, 3 rebounds) decided a winner with 2 free throws 5 seconds till the end.
Serbian team played whole competition practically with only 2 players, Vladimir Dasic and Miroslav Raduljica, which was far from enough for defending of crown.

TURKEY - SPAIN 59-81 (12-25 18-16 15-21 14-19)
SERBIA & MONTENEGRO - BULGARIA 93-82 (26-22 26-19 19-20 22-2)
BULGARIA - TURKEY 60-78 (14-31 18-14 14-22 14-11)
SPAIN - SERBIA & MONTENEGRO 81-77 (18-21 18-17 20-23 25-16)
BULGARIA - SPAIN 49-89 (13-19 12-20 13-23 11-27)
TURKEY - SERBIA & MONTENEGRO 63-58 (13-15 14-19 21-9 15-15)

1. Spain 3/0
2. Turkey 2/1
3. Serbia & Montenegro 1/2
4. Bulgaria 0/3

Semi-Finals

Lithuania - Turkey 26.07.2006 19:00
France - Spain 26.07.2006 21:15

25.7.2006