ESP/EGY – Egypt's strong first half not enough to derail Spain

HAMBURG (FIBA U17 World Championship) – Spain needed a strong third quarter to shake off brave Egypt, beating them 87-62 to set up a match-up with Argentina in Saturday’s ninth place game.

The Egyptians pushed the Spaniards for a good 20 minutes. They trailed 19-10 at the end of the first quarter but then outscored them 21-14 in the second period to be within two, 33-31, at the break.

With point guard Ahmed Moustafa kept in check, power forward Ahmed Hamdi stepped up and had 14 points and eight rebounds before halftime. He would go on to finish with a double-double of 23 and 14.

Diego Ocampo's men though got back on track in the third quarter outscoring their opponents 35-19. They blew the game wide open by playing more aggressively and making a concerted effort of attacking the basket and got to the line 25 times in the second half, hitting 16 attempts.

Egypt will face Korea in Saturday’s other Classification Round game, with both teams looking for their first win at the inaugural FIBA U17 World Championship.

Quotes:

Hesham Aboserea, Head Coach Egypt: “We lost the game in the third quarter when we did not do a good job offensively. Congratulations to Spain as they played a very good game.”

Diego Ocampo, Head Coach Spain: “Our first half wasn’t very good. We did not pay attention to the small things that are important. From the third quarter on we play much better in offense and defense."

Mohammed Alaa: “Spain is a very good team. We played very good in the first half but then we were not focused enough in the second half and which lost us the game."

Alex Ramon, Player Spain: “We started well and played good defense in the first quarter. In the second quarter our game was very bad and we missed many shots. We played with more intelligence offensively in the second half.

FIBA / JB