Spain defeats Turkey to claim U18 European Championship

Spain edged the host Turkey with a final score of 68-61 (22-14, 14-17, 15-8, 22-17) to claim the second U18 European Championship in a row in a rematch from the 2019 finals.

Rafael Villa hit a key 3-pointer and then hit two free throws in the next possession to put Spain up by 10 points (65-55) with 52 seconds remaining in the final quarter.

Spain led for the entire game after they took the lead in the fifth minute of the first quarter.

The largest Spain lead of the game was 14 points (49-35) after Martin Iglesias scored a layup with 1:04 left in the third quarter. 

Turkey managed to fight back behind their crowd and reduced its deficit to just 5 points (56-51) with 2:43 minutes to play in the fourth quarter, but didn’t manage to get any closer in the last few minutes.

For Spain, Rafael Villar had 20 points (3/4 2 PT, 3/4 3PT, 5/8 FT), 5 assists, 4 steals, 3 rebounds, and 1 block.

Turkey was led by Ozgur Cengiz, who ended up with 12 points (3/3 2 PT, 2/5 3PT, 0/2 FT), 5 assists, and 2 steals.

Spain U18: Rafael Villar 20 (5 AST), Izan Almansa 14 (15 REB), Nikolas Cebrian 8, Ab Sediq Garuba 7 (5 REB);

Turkey U18:  Ozgur Cengiz 12 (5 AST), Kerem Konan 10 (5 REB), Eray Buyukcangaz 10, Hamza Mestoglu 9, Berke Buyuktuncel 8 (7 REB).