5 hours ago
U-18 European champion can get a taste of it
17-year-old Duru makes EuroLeague debut for Real Madrid
Declan Duru made his EuroLeague debut. The German U-18 European champion made his first appearance in an international competition in Real Madrid’s win in the final phase against Virtus Bologna.
The 17-year-old played in the last 57 seconds of the Royals’ 98:86 win against Virtus Bologna, but his only shot attempt was cleared by Achille Polonara. Almost two weeks ago, the forward also had a brief taste of the Spanish ACB against Murcia after impressing in Real’s youth team in recent months.
In the summer, Duru won the European Championship title with the U-18 in Tampere, Finland, playing alongside him were, among others, Ivan Kharchenkov, who sees constant minutes in the EuroLeague with Bayern, and Jack Kayil (Mega Basket), who is playing for the upcoming international matches of the DBB was nominated against Sweden.
Real celebrated their second win of the season, and there were also successes for the two top Greek teams, although both of them found it very difficult. Panathinaikos was at times behind by double digits against Maccabi Tel Aviv and only equalized five minutes before the end before Cedi Osman (12 points) put the champions on the winning path. The Greens’ top scorers were Kendrick Nunn (21) and Matthias Lessort (18).
It was similarly close for Olympiakos against Kellerkind ASVEL, Piraeus only took the lead in the final phase and then held their nerve in crunch time. Thomas Walkup gave Olympiakos its first lead since the first quarter with two minutes left, Evan Fournier (20) added from mid-range. The hosts’ most diligent point collector was Sasha Vezenkov with 21 points.
