U18 ALBA Berlin will play for third place at Euroleague Basketball ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Munich after defeating U18 Darussafaka Istanbul 74-58 in the final game in Group B. Hendrik Drescher collected 19 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks and Franz Wagner picked up 16 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and 1 blocks as ALBA finished group play with a 2-1 record to take second place in the group. ALBA will next face U18 Olympiacos Piraeus. Darussafaka dropped to 1-2 in the group despite 21 points and 7 rebounds from Mert Akay. Darussafaka will take on U18 Brose Bamberg for fifth place.

Engin Kalkan hit for 6 points as Darussafaka jumped ahead 5-11. Akay took over the scoring then with 7 points as the lead grew to 9-18 and it was 11-18 after 10 minutes. Jonas Mattisseck collected 7 points as ALBA opened the second quarter with a 12-0 run. Efe Arikan’s three-pointer finally got Darussafaka on the board after nearly 6 minutes of play. But the ALBA onslaught continued with another 12-0 run with 4 points from Drescher for a 35-21 lead, which was 35-23 at the break.

Mattisseck and Drescher opened the second half with three-pointers as the advantage grew to 41-25. Darussafaka came up with an 0-8 run with Kalkan scoring 5 points in getting the deficit down to 41-33. ALBA punched back with the next 6 points for a 14 point lead. Arikan scored 6 points the rest of the quarter but Darussafaka could not get closer than 10 points and trailed 57-43 after 30 minutes. ALBA did not let up and pushed the advantage out to 62-46. And Evans Rapieque and Drescher combined for 11 points in the final stanza as ALBA always came up with scores down the stretch to keep Darussafaka at bay.