Karpenko excelled in Zaragoza - Ignacio García IGGA Internacional

Nicolás García Karpenko excelled playing as a center, a position that is not his, in the prestigious Tournament of the great stars of future Spanish basketball, between the best young U15 and U16 talents of the exciting national basketball, held during Holy Week from the 28th to March 31 in Zaragoza.

Versatility

Karpenko demonstrated, once again, that he is an enormous player, different and difficult to classify. As he himself acknowledges, he is neither very tall nor very strong, he is a very versatile player, capable of playing as a shooting guard and small forward as well as a center. A great shooter and a great penetrator, he knows how to rebound and, due to his great versatility, always finds some way to hurt the opposing defense. This has been demonstrated in the Zaragoza Tournament where he played as a five, at the request of coach Rubén Sarmiento, simply because he was the tallest player on the roster called by the international academy, based in Badalona, Next Hoops Entertainment. And he did it spectacularly, beating his rivals in the six games of the tournament, becoming the second most valuable player of the international team, with an incredible average of 10 rebounds, 6.2 points, 5 stolen balls, 2.7 fouls received, 2 assists, 1 block and 27 minutes per game.

Group 1 of the tournament

The opening game of the tournament, broadcast in streaming on CARTV’s Aragón Deporte platform, pitted Next Hoops against the almighty Spain U15, which ultimately was the undefeated winner of the tournament in the male cadet category. The game was even until halftime, although it was broken in the second half in favor of Spain, which won with a resounding 46-82. However, individually, the first duel in the paint was won by Karpenko with 7 rebounds compared to 4 rebounds by the tallest center of the Spanish team, a Marco Considine of more than 200 cm tall, a Real Betis Baloncesto player. Additionally, Karpenko stole 4 balls, made 1 block and gave 1 assist.

Video of Zaragoza Tournament © 2024 Ignacio García. – Some of Karpenko’s best moments in the men’s cadet category games played on March 29, 2024 between Las Rozas and Next Hoops, and between Next Hoops and CB Mollet.

Then, the next two games in Group 1 went to the Badalona team, which comfortably beat the Las Rozas teams by 68-78 and CB Mollet by 84-71, with a magnificent double-double by Karpenko of 11 points and 11 rebounds; in addition to 4 steals, 2 blocks and 1 assist in 28:10 minutes.

Video of Zaragoza Tournament © 2024 Ignacio García. – Some of Karpenko’s best moments in the men’s cadet category games played on March 30, 2024 between Next Hoops and Moncayo CBZ, and between Next Hoops and CB Cornella.

Group 9-16 of the tournament

The fourth game, belonging to Group 9-16, was lost by Next Hoops in the last minutes against Moncayo CBZ by 65-70, despite the power of the incredible Karpenko in both paintings, with 16 rebounds, 7 points, 6 steals, 1 block and 1 assist in 30:39 minutes. However, Next Hoops overcame and comprehensively defeated CB Cornella in the following game by 92-79, with 8 points, 7 rebounds and 6 steals from the Andalusian player.

Video and photography of Zaragoza Tournament © 2024 Ignacio García. – Some of Karpenko’s best moments in the men’s cadet category game played on March 31, 2024 between Next Hoops and Don Bosco Valencia.

Classification

Karpenko’s overwhelming 13 rebounds, 6 points, 6 steals and 3 assists in the final game of the tournament were not enough for Next Hoops to take the victory against Don Bosco Valencia. Finally, the team from Badalona lost by a tight 71-75 and, without being a conventional basketball team but rather a traveling group of talented players who met on the day of their first game, they were classified in a creditable fourteenth position, among the 32 great teams that participated in the tournament, ahead of rosters as cohesive as those of Pablo Laso Academy, Real Valladolid, CB Tizona, among others.

España U15
Movistar Estudiantes
Casademont Zaragoza
Unicaja Málaga
Náutico Tenerife
UE Mataró
Baloncesto Fuenlabrada
Fundación Granada
Torrejón Basketball
El Olivar
Azulejos Moncayo CBZ
Forca Lleida
Don Bosco Valencia
Next Hoops
CB Cornella
Italtel Alcobendas
Pablo Laso Academy A
El Pilar Valencia
Real Valladolid
Basket Almeda
Las Rozas
CB L´Hospitalet
CA Montemar
Pablo Laso Academy B
Easo
CB Tizona
Sabadell BQ
CN Helios
CB Mollet
Loiola Indautxu
UB Mir
STV Luzern

On par with the best

Nicolás García Karpenko, only 16 years old, is one of the great future projects of Spanish basketball. Nobody disputes that he belongs to the lineage of the best training players of the most prestigious ACB youth clubs in the country.

Final classification of free throws of the 410 tournament players in the male cadet category. – Karpenko ranked 57th in free throws with 9/14 and 64.3% success rate. He was only surpassed by five players belonging to the first four teams in the tournament: Spain, Estudiantes, Zaragoza and Unicaja.

_ Nº 15_Álvaro Cativiela Aisa (Zaragoza)
_ Nº 35_Humberto Ruíz Zamorano (España)
_ Nº 48_Luka Bottiroli Roura (Unicaja)
_ Nº 53_Dapete Carungal Canhanqueri (Estudiantes)
_ Nº 56_Lucas Fernández Marín (Unicaja)
_ Nº 57_Nicolás García Karpenko (Next Hoops)

Final points classification of the 410 tournament players in the male cadet category. – Karpenko ranked 111th among the best scorers with 37 points in 6 games. He was only surpassed by eighteen players belonging to the first four teams in the tournament: Spain, Estudiantes, Zaragoza and Unicaja.