England U16s Advance to Quarter Finals with Macedonia Win

FIBA

The England Under-16 men advanced to the quarter finals at the Division B European Championships after defeating Macedonia 69-38 in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Tuesday afternoon.

Jacob Round led England with 17 points, and Robert Banks had 9, as England have now set up a quarter final match up against Russia on Thursday, with their promotion hopes still on target.

“Going into the Macedonia game, once again, we maintained the mindset that the next game is a final,” Head Coach Alan Keane said.

“Victory favours the team best prepared and with this in mind we scouted Macedonia in great detail. We discovered their weakness and as much as we wanted to attack those weakness we knew that if we imposed our style of game early on that we could dictate the game from start to finish.

“It is not always difficult to unpick the strengths and weakness of the opposition. The challenge is always getting your own guys to deliver to the maximum level of their capabilities. We will approach the game the same way we expect the players to do so.

“We will collectively up our game with the preparation but our feeling is it will effectively come down to England vs England. We must again impose our style, dictate the rhythm of the game and suffocate their strengths. A lot of credit must go to the execution of our players, my support staff and the amazing support of players family and friends in the stands.”

A dominant second period where England held Macedonia to just 4 points was enough to open up an insurmountable lead. England were in cruise control the rest of the way, as Hosana Kitenge, Kareem Queeley and Richard Amaefule finished with 8 points each, the latter adding 9 rebounds.

Box score.

England will face Russia, who also finished the group stages with 4-1 record, at 11:45am on Thursday.

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