Welcome Max Gaspa

[yoda]

....With a win, they are in the Final Four along with-
France (beat Croatia 76-66 in quarterfinals)
winner between Turkey/Slovenia (yet to be played at 11:30am Central)
winner between Serbia/Greece ( " " " " at 2pm Central)

well, Slovenia beat Turkiye 90-72
and Serbia beat Greece 92-66... so.....

Saturday's semi-finals will be:
-France vs Slovenia at 11:30am Central Time - (Slovenia has Murray State freshman Mark Padjen)
and
-Spain vs Serbia at 2pm Central Time - (Serbia has Nikola Dzepina who plays w/Lathan Sommerville at Washington & Ole Miss' highest rated recruit ever Nikola Bundalo.)

 

[yoda]

Saturday's semi-finals will be:
-France vs Slovenia at 11:30am Central Time - (Slovenia has Murray State freshman Mark Padjen)
and
-Spain vs Serbia at 2pm Central Time -

In the first semi-final, Murray State's Mark Padjen did his part for Slovenia with 25 pts, 4 reb & 6 asst.
Slovenia beats France 91-89 in a game that was tight right to the final buzzer. Slovenia advances to the Championship
tomorrow at Noon Central Time
The final two points were scored with 3 seconds left by Slovenian Filip Petrovsky who plays for UT-Martin. Petrovsky finished today's
game with 14 pts, 4 reb and 4 asst.

Some may recall that Filip Petrovsky played starting point guard at Carver Arena last season when UT-Martin came in here and beat Bradley 78-67 on Nov. 12, 2025.
He went 3-5 and 2-3 from 3-pt that game and ended with 10 pts, 6 reb and 8 assists.
****************************************
Spain vs Serbia begins in about 10 minutes

update-
...not a good start - Spain shooting poorly- trails after 1st quarter 25-11. Max hit a 3-pointer and has 3 pts, 1 reb.

-down 42-28 at half, Max is Spain's leading scorer with 9 pts, 2 reb, 1 asst

another update -- an amazing comeback!! After being down 18 pts in the 2nd quarter, Spain has fought back to within 6pts late in the 3rd quarter.
.....The score to start the 4th quarter is Serbia 59 - Spain 49

Last update--
Final score- Spain loses 72-65
They got back to within 3 points at 62-59 but ran out of gas.
Max Gaspa had a good game - 10 pts, 5 reb, 3 assists

Spain does get to play a 3rd place game tomorrow morning at 9:30am Central Time, vs France,
while Slovenia & Serbia play for the Championship at Noon Central Time.

 

[yoda]

In the 3rd place game of the FIBA U20 European Championships-
Halftime score -- Spain 31 - France 27
Max has 3 pts, 3 asst and 1 reb at half
His +/- stat is +13, by far the highest of any player on either team.
(for those unfamiliar with this stat, it is often used in ice hockey but not much in the US in basketball. It shows the point differential of the two teams
during the minutes Max was in the game. In other words- during his minutes on the court, his team outscored France by 13 points, so his defensive contributions
may have had a nice impact.)


update- score after 3 quarters:
Spain 43 - France 41
Max with 6 pts, 4 asst, 1 reb (2-5 on 3-pointers)
Balanced scoring - 9 of Spain's 10 rostered players have played at least 12 minutes, and all nine of those have scored.
Spain has held France to just 31.9% shooting thus far in the game. Over France's previous 6 games, they had been shooting almost 45% overall.
Some photos of Max from today's game

 

[yoda]

4th quarter updates---
with 6 minutes remaining in the game, Max Gaspa hits a 3 pointer & celebrates - to give Spain a 51-45 lead.

....now just 4 minutes left, score 55-47 .....

 

[yoda]

3 minutes to go - Spain up 59-50


...with 2 min to go Max draws a flagrant foul from Tom Audry and hits BOTH free throws to put Spain up 61-50!!

FINAL SCORE
Spain wins, 65-54
Max had 11 pts, 4 asst, 2 reb
Max's 11 points were the team's high, with Andres Amon also scoring 11. Max's 4 assists were 2nd highest- Raul Villar had 5 asst
Offensive rebounds were the deciding factor with Spain having a 24-10 advantage in offensive rebounds and a 21-4 advantage in second chance points. Two of Max's rebounds were offensive rebounds.
Teammate Bruno Alocen did not play & wasn't even listed in box score or game stats- no explanation. Perhaps already on the way back to Valparaiso.

 

[Braves4Life]

I think Max may surprise a lot of people once he gets to campus. I'm beginning to think he isn't just some late addition roster filler, like some think.

 

[yoda]

he's young and still developing, and his shooting percentages are not that high.
But his numbers at this level are better than what van der Knaap put up - so I think
he will provide some backup help this year and hopefully be ready for a bigger role in the future.