U18 INSEP Paris did its part to stay in the hunt for the final of the Euroleague Basketball ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Qualifying Tournament – Kaunas with a 51-79 victory over U18 USK Future Stars Prague. Bathiste Tchouaffe poured in 28 points to go with 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals while Jaylen Hoard had 18 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals for the 2010 continental champion INSEP, which improved to 2-1 in Group B. Sekou Doumbouya chipped in 10 points to help INSEP to the win. The French side now hopes U18 VEF Riga beats U18 Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius by fewer than 13 points and it will reach the ANGT Kaunas final. If VEF win the final Group B game by 13 points or more, the Latvian team is in the final while if Rytas win, it advances to the final against U18 Zalgiris Kaunas. USK failed in its attempt to play spoiler in dropping to 0-3 despite Jakub Tuma scoring 19 points and Radek Karsky adding 15 points.

David Chaloupka and Tuma scored to give USK a 4-0 lead to start the game. After a pair of Tchouaffe free throws, Tuma knocked down a three-pointer to make it 7-2. Tuma added 2 more baskets for a 13-7 advantage. INSEP kept USK scoreless for the next 5 minutes and Tchouaffe tallied 6 points to even the game and Hoard put the French side ahead 13-17. Tuma’s three-ball stopped the drought and INSEP was leading 16-19 after 10 minutes. David Zykla scored 4 points early in the second as USK regained the lead and was up 21-19 with 7:23 minutes left in the half. The Czech team would not score again before intermission as it missed its next 9 shots and turned the ball over 4 times while Doumbouya scored 8 points and Tchouaffe had 7 points in a 0-21 run to lead 21-40 at the break.

Farsky’s free throw opened the second half and started an 8-0 spurt for USK to pull within 29-40. Tchouaffe finally got INSEP on the board in the second half with 5:54 minutes left in the quarter and Hoard’s three-point play made it 29-45. Tchouaffe added a three-point play and a three-pointer as the cushion extended to 38-55. And a Hoard three-point play gave INSEP its first 20-point lead 40-60. Farsky’s three just before the buzzer made it 43-60 after 30 minutes. INSEP made sure to not let USK get back into the game with the first 9 points of the fourth quarter. And after Robert Bzonek finally scored for USK, INSEP reeled off the next 10 points to lead 45-77. USK did not get closer than 26 points the rest of the way.