Faithful to their traditional appointment each summer, the lower categories of the Spanish team will once again fight for gold of a continental competition. And it is that the masculine team, with two Unicaja homegrown players such as Guillermo del Pino and Rubén Salazarwill fight this Sunday -from 9:00 p.m.- for the first place in the European sub-16 against Italy after beat Lithuania 80-63.
The one who until now was the current champion -precisely, after winning Spain in 2022 in an edition in which Mario Saint-Supéry finished as MVP- did not make it easy. Be that as it may, the 35-36 break was a clear sign that the rival was going to put everything on the table to repeat the victory of the previous final. However, Spain, with a very solvent attack and commendable defence, took a step forward in the last quarter with a 20-7 run to seal the final.
One of the big culprits for which Xavier Albert Peralta’s men are going to fight for gold is, once again, William of the Pino. The man from Cordoba did not score the 27 points in the quarterfinals on this occasion, but he was one of those who opened the way to the fight for gold. Their 10 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 4 steals in the second half they ended up being fundamental after the first half was missing due to three fouls in less than five minutes. For his part, Ruben Salazar He only spent 2.51 minutes and left 1 rebound.
So Unicaja -and Málaga with Salazar- has again secured two international medalists in a dream summer. Now it remains to determine the color. For now, in front will be an Italy that has not reached the final of a European sub-16 since 1991. Basketball will be the one that dictates the sentence from 9:00 p.m..