Dan Casey of FIBA Europe reports:
Croatian do-it-all forward Mario Hezonja was voted MVP of the U16 European Championship Men after carrying his team all the way to the gold medal.
Hezonja showed his outstanding talent all through the tournament. Not only did he finish 4th in the overall rankings for scoring in the tournament with 20.0 points per game, but his all-round contributions were felt with 8.2 rebounds per game (rank 8th), 2.7 assists per game (rank 20th) and 2.2 steals per game (rank 6th).
Hezonja’s best game came in the quarter-final against Russia with 30 points, 11 rebounds and 4 steals in a performance coach Ante Nazor described as “perfect”. Hezonja followed this up with 24 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in the semi-final win over Spain, and scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the final win over the Czech Republic.
