U18 Herbalife Gran Canaria nearly wasted a 20-point lead but escaped with its first victory in Group A of the Euroleague ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Ciutat de L’Hospitalet with a 77-74 win over host side U18 Torrons Vicens L’Hospitalet. Biram Faye paced Gran Canaria with 21 points and 15 rebounds as the team improved to 1-1 in the group. Paulo Rodriguez chipped in 16 points and Aleksander Balcerowski had 11 points and 7 rebounds. L’Hospitalet dropped to 0-2 in the group despite 19 points from Alex Navas and 17 points from Adrian Rodriguez.

L’Hospitalet scored the first 6 points of the game and led by as many as 8 points at 2-10. The advantage was still 10-14 before Miguel Serrano converted a four-point play in a 12-2 Gran Canaria run for a 22-16 lead, which was 24-18 after 10 minutes. Gran Canaria held L’Hospitalet scoreless for 6 minutes in the second quarter with a 14-0 run for a 40-21 cushion. The gap was 20 points at 43-23 and Gran Canaria led 46-30 at halftime. L’Hospitalet had the better start to the second half as Gerard Sola picked up 6 points in a 6-16 run to get to within 54-46. That was as close as the host team would get until Gerard Enfedaque’s layup to make it 59-52 after three quarters. Balcerowski started the fourth quarter with a three-point play to re-establish a double-digit lead. And Gran Canaria continued to come up with baskets to keep L’Hospitalet at an arm’s length. L’Hospitalet did make things interesting with David Meija’s three-ball cutting the gap to 75-68 inside the 2-minute mark. And four Gran Canaria turnovers allowed L’Hospitalet to pull within 75-74. But Jovan Kljajic converted two free throws with 18 seconds left to provide the final score.