Joventut hangs on to beat Ludwigsburg for third place

U18 Divina Seguros Joventut Badalona clinched third place at the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Qualifier Valencia by defeating U18 Porsche Ludwigsburg 80-84. Aleix Haro paced four scorers in double figures with 16 points on 9-of-10 free throw shooting – including 5 without a miss in the final 37 seconds - to go along with 6 assists and 4 steals for 2013 continental champion Joventut. Adria Domenech had 12 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks and Zsombor Maronka and Oliver Bieshaar both scored 11 points for the winners. Ludwigsburg missed a chance to match its best-ever ANGT result of third place from ANGT Belgrade in 2017 despite 22 points, 15 rebounds, 6 steals and 2 blocks from Ariel Hukporti. Lukas Herzog sank 4 three-pointers for 14 points and George-Cristian Cotoara added 9 points and 10 rebounds.

Johannes Patrick scored 5 points in helping Ludwigsburg open an 8-6 lead. The game was even before Maronka picked up 5 points in a 0-9 surge as Joventut jumped ahead 14-23. Jakob Patrick knocked down a three-pointer for Ludwigsburg, but Joventut led 19-26 after 10 minutes. Ludwigsburg surged ahead 30-27 with an 11-1 run and the lead grew to 38-29 after three-pointers from Herzog. Bieshaar scored 7 points as Joventut got within 42-41 with a 4-12 answer, but trailed 45-42 at the break. Nico Santana, Aeneas Jung and Herzog all hit from long range and Ludwigsburg remained in control 62-53. But the offense stalled and managed just one basket in the final 4 minutes of the quarter as Arnau Jaime tallied 7 points in a 3-15 run to put Joventut up 65-68 after 30 minutes. A Hukporti three-point play started the fourth quarter to even the game, but Haro had a basket-plus-foul at the other end in an 0-7 spurt as Joventut went up 68-75. Ludwigsburg pulled to within 2 points, but it was 75-80 on a Haro free throw after a technical foul with 37 seconds left. After turnovers by both teams, Haro knocked down 2 more free throws to make it 75-82 with 21 seconds remaining. Herzog drained a three-pointer and then Ludwigsburg turned a steal into a Caisin layup for 80-82 score with 5.9 seconds to play. Haro finished off the game with 2 final free throws with 4.2 seconds remaining.