U18 Herbalife Gran Canaria will play for third place at the Euroleague Basketball ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Ciutat de L’Hospitalet after defeating U18 Virtus Bologna 64-67 in Group A. Biram Faye picked up 25 points, 15 rebounds and two blocks while Luis Melian added as 12 points as Gran Canaria finished group play with a 2-1 record. Virtus dropped to 1-2 and will play for fifth place despite Niccolo Venturoli and Mikk Jurkatamm scoring 15 points.

Virtus jumped ahead 10-1 in the first six minutes thanks to six points from Lorenzo Bianchini. Faye finally scored Gran Canaria’s first basket at the 4:15 minute mark but the Italian side still led 18-11 after 10 minutes. Virtus increased the advantage to 10 points at 23-13 but Faye picked up eight points and Miguel Serrano nailed a three-pointer to knot the game at 25-25. The game remained tight the rest of the first half, which ended with Virtus up 37-34. Aleksander Balcerowski and Faye combined for nine points in an 0-13 Gran Canaria run to go up 39-47. Jurkatamm nailed a three-pointer to stop the rut and Guglielmo Giulani also hit from long range as Virtus evened the game at 49-49. Gran Canaria was up 49-54 after 30 minutes. Gran Canaria was able to pull away a little as Melian and Faye both picked up four points for a 57-64 lead. Jurkatamm did knock down a three-pointer to cut the deficit to 62-65 with 27 seconds left. But Jovan Kljajic made two free throws with 15 seconds remaining to ice the game.