The Lithuanian Vytautas Magnus University will be returning home from the European Universities Games with gold medals around their necks. In an exciting final held on July 18 at Dražen Petrović Basketball Hall, they triumphed over the home team from the University of Zagreb 95:82. The Croatians managed to keep up with the Lithuanians in the first two quarters, but the more experienced Vytautas Magnus University used Zagreb’s mistakes to secure the win. Although the home team were supported by almost a thousand fans, including the Rector of the University of Zagreb Damir Boras, they couldn’t bridge the gap, ending the tournament with silver.
‘This is a wonderful feeling; we all got together only a few weeks ago, but we trained hard and came here for the gold. We opened the match well and got better and better as it progressed. To be honest, Zagreb is a great team, they fought for the entire match, never surrendered, and I’m happy we managed to win. This was our hardest game at the tournament as Zagreb never gave up. Even when we had a 15 or 17 point lead, they kept fighting, but we stood united and we’re happy to have won the gold,’ said Paulus Sokoras, who had 16 points on his tally.
Bronze winner was decided in a close fight between Fatih University and VERN’ University of Applied Sciences. VERN’ controlled the first two quarters of the game, maintaining a strong lead, but the Turks managed to pull a comeback after tagging behind 10 points. Taking the lead, they always had a few points’ advantage for the rest of the game. VERN’ couldn’t find the strength to get back into the match and eventually had to settle for the unfortunate fourth place, losing 72:77.
The University of Split finished ninth, while the other host of the European Universities Games, the University of Rijeka, finished eleventh.
1 VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY (LTU)
2 UNIVERSITY OF ZAGREB (CRO)
3 FATIH UNIVERSITY (TUR)
4 VERN UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES (CRO)
