Viktor Sanikidze Leads Georgia

[roadtoad]

.....To Final European Championship Division B final

link:http://mamuli.net/geosports/sppro/b...1&vjob=vsub,171

Sanikidze Leads Georgia To Final


Viktor Sanikidze (San Antonio Spurs) carried Georgia into the final of the Ostchem U20 European Championship Division B with a dominant performance in his side's 74-63 semi-final defeat of Finland.

Sanikidze tallied 27 points and 14 points for Georgia, who earn promotion to Divison B in 2007.

A cat and mouse game saw Finland lead 14-15 at the end of the first quarter with 10 points from Petteri Koponen.

However Georgia lead at the half thanks to 13 and 7 rebounds from Sanikidze and 14 points from Iraki Sakvarelidze. 11 first half turnovers from Finland also added to their woes and Georgia led 41-34 at the start of the third quarter.

With 6 mins to go in the third a long three from Jari Vanttaja narrowed the Georgian lead to 48-41 but the red team replied immediately with a three of their own, however, the Finns narrowed the gap closer to 55-50 at the end of the third.

By now Koponen had moved on to 15 points and Sanikidze led all players with 20 points and 10 rebounds

The last quarter was much like the first, with both teams turning the ball over and making a number of long range jumpers. The Finns who had been one of the surprises of the tournament struggled with foul trouble losing their point guard Vuori with 5 minutes remaining.

With 90 seconds left the Georgians clung to a 69-59 lead. A pair of free throws put them up by two more with less than a minute to go . The Finns challenge was over and Georgia ran out 74-63 winners.

Georgia will take on FYROM in Sunday's final.

[spurs/gators33]

seems like Sanikidze is putting up some pretty good numbers. Maybe he'll be ready to be brought over next year. Who knows, he could be the athletic SF type we're looking for. Of course, it doesn't help us this year.

[Soul Stealer]

His numbers throughout tournament were really nice, but it's still U20 European Championship Division B, so no real competition there...

[alpineballer]

Originally Posted by JamesR

He's dominating his age group, as he should be. This is like not being excited about a college player because he's in college.

it's the division thing. the best 16 european teams play division A, division B is much less competitive.
but Georgia now has won the division B title and will promote to div A in 2007.
Sanikidze dominated the turnament, but getting this stats in div B really doesn't mean that much, it's like a college player getting nice stats in a weak division. it doesn't tell that he wouldn't be able to put up those numbers also in a better division, but it also doesn't prove that he's domonation his age group.

IMO the most imprortant part about Sanikidzes output at the tounament was, that he looked 100% healthy again.