Aldama Named MVP As Spain Wins FIBA U18 European Championship

Santi Aldama was named the MVP of the FIBA U19 European Championship.

VOLOS, Greece – Loyola University Maryland incoming freshman Santi Aldama scored 17 second-half points and earned Most Valuable Player honors for the 2019 FIBA U18 European Championships as he led Spain to a 57-53 come-from-behind win over Turkey on Sunday night.

Aldama finished with 23 points for his fourth-straight game with 19 or more points all in elimination play. He ended the seven-game tournament by leading all players in efficiency per game, at 22.9, while he had the highest plus-minus (points scored by a player's team over his opponent while in the game) at +141 (+20.1 per game).

He was the championship's third-leading scorer with 126 points, 18.0 per contest, while he was ninth with 7.6 rebounds per game, third in blocked shots at 2.3 per game, 14^th in steals (1.9) and 16^th with 2.6 assists.

Turkey led Aldama's Spanish side, 31-23, at halftime, but Aldama tallied 11 points in the third quarter to help Spain pull within a point, 43-42, entering the final stanza. He then made a pair of 3-pointers in the closing 10 minutes to help his country secure the victory.

His three just 49 seconds into the fourth gave Spain a 45-43 lead, and after a Turkish basket at 8:44, Aldama knocked down another three at 8:22 that gave Spain a lead it would not relinquish.

Fellow Loyola incoming freshman Golden Dike was also a member of the gold-medal winning team, chipping in with four rebounds in the title game.

Overall, Aldama scored in double figures seven times during the tournament, his only game below the mark coming when he tallied nine in just 23 minutes during a 36-point win by Spain in group play against Finland.

In elimination play, Aldama opened with what was an international career-high 19 points against Latvia in the Round of 16. He followed that with 25 in the quarterfinal against Russia and a double-double of 19 points and 11 rebounds against host Greece in the semifinal.

Aldama and Dike are part of a five-player freshman class that will compete for the Greyhounds in 2019-20. They join Garren Davis (The Colony, Texas/The Colony), Cam Spencer (Davidsonville, Md./Boys' Latin School of Maryland) and Daraun Gray (Clarksburg, Md./Landon School).