Russia showcases young basketball talent
Published 12 May, 2008, 18:23
The best of Russia's up and coming basketball players have shown off their skills at the first ever Student Basketball Association tournament. One hundred schools from around Russia took part.
Ladies got a chance to go first at the grand finale of the university tournament at the CSKA arena.
Moscow's Agricultural Academy and St. Petersburg's State University of physical culture were the sole survivors of the event.
It was a back and forth game for much of the first half, with centre Varvara Vatutina keeping the Muscovites in the running. She added 10 points in the first quarter alone and finished with 24, to go along with 21 rebounds.
The St. Petersburg side had a slim 46-42 lead going into the final quarter, but a 16-point effort from Darya Avroskina and a few key shots from Svetlana Ivanova eventually swung the momentum in favor of the Muscovites.
61:57 was the final score, and the trophy gets to stay in the capital.
In the men’s final, students of the Cherepovets Engineering institute faced off against the men from the Architectual and Construction academy in the remote Tomsk.
Roman Shapovalov did his best to keep Cherepovets in contention late in the game, scoring a game-high 22 points but he got little help. Tomsk was eventually able to close out the game 72:62. It was truly a team effort with four players reaching double figures.
But Russia still has a long way to go before the students are able to secure big money deals in a lottery similar to the NBA draft in America.
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