Women's Basketball's Kreslina, Radomska Reach Quarterfinals at FIBA U20 Euro Championships

Bronx, N.Y. – Future teammates Kate Kreslina and Monika Radomska will soon be practicing together in the Bronx in advance of the upcoming 2016-17 season. However, over the last two weeks the duo took part in the 2016 FIBA U20 Women's European Championship, helping Latvia and Poland, respectively, to reach the seventh-place game in which the two Rams went head-to-head.
 
From July 9^th until this past weekend at the Pavilhao Municipal de Guiföes in Matosinhos, a small coastal city in Northern Portugal, Kreslina and Radomska starred in this year's iteration of the biannual tournament. Radomska led her national team in scoring, with 11.7 points per contest, while Kreslina's 9.6 points per contest placed third on her squad.
 
Both Latvia and Poland finished third in their respective groups. Poland finished the group phase with two wins and a loss, an identical record to both Spain and hosts Portugal, but had the lowest point differential. Latvia finished with one win and two losses but had a greater point differential than the Netherlands. Both countries defeated their round of 16 opponents before falling in the quarterfinals and then the first round of 5-8 classification (to determine final standings), ultimately leading to the two teams facing off for 7^th place. Latvia, the 31^st-ranked country at this level, defeated Poland, the 48^th-ranked country, 72-67, in overtime on Sunday.

Both Poland and Latvia fell in their first match of the tournament. Latvia struggled against the Dutch but Kreslina was still named the top performer among her teammates by FIBA with a 6-4-2 line. Radomska struggled from the field, with zero points in 22 minutes, but bounced back in a huge way thereafter.
 
Against Bosnia & Herzegovina, the Wolomin, Poland native poured in a team-high 16 points on 6-of-17 shooting in 27 minutes, while pacing her squad with four assists and three steals. On the same day, Kreslina piled up 19 points, five rebounds, and a team-high four assists in 31 minutes of a win over Greece, making 6-of-12 from the field and 6-of-8 from the line. Radomska was again in double figures in an upset win over the hosts, with 18 points in just 12 minutes, on an efficient 6-of-10 from the field, including a 4-of-7 mark from downtown, while leading the team with a pair of steals. Kreslina, too, was efficient with 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting but Latvia fell to France.

In the Round of 16, Poland downed Germany, 63-47, thanks in part to Radomska's team-leading 12 points over 30 minutes of play, while Kreslina's Latvia defeated Slovakia, 61-42, with the sophomore chipping in 12 points, two three-pointer's, and three rebounds in 28 minutes. Poland fell, 68-55, to Russia in the quarterfinals, with the sophomore transfer Radomska pacing her team with nine points and four rebounds in just 17 minutes, while Kreslina played a team-high 37 minutes and scored 10 points. However, Latvia fell to eventual runners-up Italy, 61-54. Radomska netted nine points and four rebounds in 16 minutes in a loss to Belgium, while Kreslina tallied six points and five rebounds in 26 minutes in a loss to France, setting up a meeting between the two Rams.
 
Kreslina and Radomska only shared the court as opponents briefly as Latvia opted to play 10 different players, with the sophomore seeing the court for 14 minutes, in which she made one three-pointer and hauled in one rebound. Radomska again led the way among her compatriots with 14 points (5-of-10 shooting) and a team-high seven rebounds, plus two assists and three steals, over 29 minutes.

This was not the first time either had seen international competition before. Kreslina has participated in four other major tournaments, playing seven games at the 2013 U18 Euros, eight games at the 2013 U20 Euros just a month before that, four games at the 2012 U16 Euros, and nine games as a 15 year old at the 2011 U16 Euro Championships in Romania, where she averaged 11.4 points per contest. Kreslina also was a key cog in Latvia's 2015 Eurobasket qualification, playing six games and helping her country to the top of Group C. The Riga native scored a team-high 13 points in a big win over Italy, with three three-pointer's in 32 minutes, in June 2014.
 
Radomska has featured for her country at the 2012 U16 Euros, averaging 11 points over nine contests, the 2014 U18s, also in Portugal, where she averaged 13 points over nine games, and at the 2015 U20s, where she averaged 6.4 points per game. In 2014, she enjoyed a 28-point outburst, including six makes from long range as part of a 10-for-22 overall shooting day against Spain.
 
Interestingly, the two future teammates could've seen each other on the court twice before: at the 2012 U16s and at the 2014 U20s, but Kreslina missed the former contest, while Radomska missed the latter.
 
For more information on the tournament, visit www.fiba.com/europe/u20women/2016.