U18 Virtus Bologna tipped off the Euroleague Basketball ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Ciutat de L’Hospitalet by beating host side U18 Torrons Vicens L’Hospitalet 56-73. Virtus wasted a 14-point lead but then pulled away in the fourth quarter in the Group A encounter. Mikk Turkatamm led the way with 17 points for Virtus while Gora Camara collected 16 points, 23 rebounds and 2 blocks for an index ranking of 34. L’Hospitalet was paced by Adrian Rodriguez, who came up just short of a triple-double with 17 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists in addition to 6 steals. Gerard Sola scored 14 points and Alex Navas had 10 points in the loss.

Jurkatamm scored 9 points in helping Virtus open a 8-15 lead early on. L’Hospitalet was able to close the gap to 14-15 but Virtus held the home side scoreless for the final 3:46 of the first quarter with a 0-12 surge to lead 14-27. L’Hospitalet’s scoreless run stretched to 5:12 minutes and it was 18-32 on Roberto Chessari’s three-pointer. L’Hospitalet shut down the Virtus offense to the tune of a 14-2 run with 7 points from Rodriguez to pull to within 32-34. Virtus was up 34-38 at intermission, and the Italian side pushed the advantage to 36-42 early in the second half. L’Hospitalet forced a number of Virtus turnovers and Sola and Navas combined for 11 points in a 15-2 run to build a 51-44 lead. Jurkatamm hit the final six points of the quarter and Virtus was down just 51-50 after 30 minutes. And Virtus dominated the fourth quarter 23-5 thanks to forcing 9 L’Hospitalet turnovers and grabbing 9 offensive rebounds in the quarter. Camara picked up 6 points and 10 rebounds in the final 10 minutes alone as Virtus opened the fourth with a 3-16 surge to go up 54-66 and never looked back.