BELGRADE (FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2018) - Serbia coach Slobodan Klipa invited 18 players for the training camp for the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2018, including 10 returnees from the team that finished third at the FIBA U16 European Championship 2017 as well as a duo of German-based talents and David Petrusev.

Stefan Agoc and Marko Andric are the only two players from the U16 side missing in Klipa's group of nominees, who started preparations on May 28 for the U17 World Cup, which runs from June 30 to July 8 in Rosario and Santa Fe, Argentina.

The team will work out in Belgrade until June 5 after which they travel to Kragujevac to train until June 14 and play two test games against Turkey. Serbia then head to Vrsac from June 15-23 and have two friendly games versus Montenegro.

The 18-man squad includes four players who guided Crvena Zvezda Belgrade to the Serbian U19 national championship with Marko Pavicevic, Nemanja Popovic, Lazar Vasic and Lazar Zivanovic. Popovic, Vasic and Zivanovic also guided Zvezda to the U17 national title as well with Aleksandar Langovic - one of three players from Mega Bemax Belgrade among the nominees - taking MVP honors of the U17 tournament.

In addition to the 10 players from last summer's team, Klipa invited Vuk Radojicic and Lazar Scekic, who are based in Germany and play for Science City Jena and Ratiopharm Ulm, respectively. Radojicic, who won't turn 17 until June 29, already made his debut in Germany's first division BBL and appeared in three games for Jena, collecting three points, one rebound and three turnovers in 17 minutes of action.

The only other foreign-based player on the list is David Petrusev, who is the younger brother of Filip Petrusev, a member of Serbia's title winning team at the FIBA U18 European Championship 2017. Petrusev will be playing next season at Montverde Academy in Florida, just like his older brother did until this season.

Serbia have been drawn into Group B with China, Mali and United States.

FIBA