Filip Petrusev and his Serbian squad got the best of Joel Ayayi’s French team in a 78-67 win in the semifinals of the FIBA U18 European Championship. In what was expected to be a scintillating matchup between two of the tournament’s best performers, both Petrusev and Ayayi had relatively quiet games from a scoring standpoint as they finished with 7 and 6 points respectively.
Petrusev had been on a dominant run, scoring at least 20+ points and 7+ rebounds in each of the preceding 5 games leading up to the semi’s. He finished with 9 rebounds in the semi, and proved to be a capable facilitator too as he notched 6 assists and showcased adept passing ability from both the high and low post to take advantage of the amount of attention he was receiving from the French defense.