By Yarone Arbel

Spain completed the Preliminary Round with an 88-60 triumph over the Czech Republic in Group C of the Omnitel U16 European Championship Men.

Spain finished the group in first place with a 3-0 record.

The Czech didn't win any game, and will try to survive in Division A less than a week after the U18 team was relegated to Division B.

Daniel Diez led the winning side with 21 points while Julen Olaizola added 12.

Michal Bernath and Lubos Lachman scored 13 each for the Czechs.

The Czechs were in the game for one quarter, but once Spain pushed the gas peddle, there was only one team on the court.

Lachman helped his team climb to a surprising 5-0 lead, but Diez answered with a 10-3 Spanish run to take the lead.

The Czechs were still up 19-17 early in the second quarter, but then felt an 11-0 run led by Luis Conde that changed the face of the game

Spain continued to display their team effort, and controlled almost every aspect of the game, to finish the first half up 43-28.

Bernath pushed his team back to the game, and the difference narrowed to 11, but Olaizola made the difference, and once again the gap increased, this time all the way to 56-37 midway in the third quarter.

That was already too much for the Czechs who saved their energy for the critical 13-16 relegation games in the days to come.

Croatia Run Past Germany

Meanwhile, Croatia sent out a clear message today to show who's a better team in their second spot battle against Germany with a 77-40 triumph.

With this win the Croats won the second spot with a 2-1 record and will carry a win to the Qualifying Round while Germany dropped to 1-2 in the third place, and will try to collect their wins in the next phase.

Matej Buovac led Croatia with 31 points and eight rebounds, Mihael Maric added 11 and Dario Saric had 11 as well with eight boards.

Tim Unterluggauer led the German scoring-sheet with 15 points and added nine rebounds.

Buovac started the game with two hits from distance as Croatia climbed to an early 16-3 lead.

Yet another three pointer by Buovac pushed the difference to more than 20, 31-9, half way in the second quarter, and Daric sealed the half from the line to separate the teams at 40-16.

Germany entered the second half knowing the game is already decided, but tried to avoid the incident against Spain when they didn't score any point in the last quarter.

They managed to score nine in the closing quarter, but Croatia was still in scoring mode, and the gap kept growing, reaching a peak of 38 points near the final line.