Junior A has made history as the academy returned to play at the famous Cholet Mondial tournament in France. The usual of all previous Holy Weeks, making the trek to western France, and where Torrejón Basketball Academy achieved an unexpected result that reinforces the work of the whole year, arriving in fourth place. We are a Final Four team.

After having finished third in Madrid in the regular round, this results only creates more optimism for what is to come. Already eliminated of contention in the FBM Quarterfinals, TBS in the regular season finished only behind Real Madrid and Zentro Basket and also beating other ACB and historic youth academies in the region such as Baloncesto Fuenlabrada, Movistar Estudiantes, Baloncesto Torrelodones or Real Canoe, this great result in Cholet cements the development work of the core group born in  2005-2006. This, together with several of our best exponents of 2004 who already shine in the TBS Under-22 Gold category.

Roster:

- Ibrahim Doumbia - 2006 - Mali - PG - 1.85m.

- Simeon Maynard - 2004 - Barbados - PG - 1.80m.

- Maksim Baranov - 2004 - Ukraine - SG - 1.84m.

- Marcos Hermosilla - 2004 - Spain - SG - 1.83m.

- Daniel Ríos - 2005 - Chile - SG - 1.94m.

- Diosdado Krohnert - 2005 - Guinea - SF - 1.98m.

- Insa Kane - 2004 - Senegal - SF - 1.95m.

- Amir Ndiaye - 2004 - Senegal - PF - 1.93m.

- Robert Roman - 2004 - Romania - PF - 2.00m.

- Amadou Maiga - 2006 - Mali - PF - 1.97m.

- Ibrahim Traoré - 2006 - Mali - C - 2.06m.

The General Manager of Torrejon Basketball Academy, David Sánz, emphasized in various lines the importance of returning to one of the best continental competitions to seek that competitive touch that characterises us: "It is a return to competition at Cholet Mondial, which despite not being one of the Euroleague ANGT tournaments, it is one of the tournaments with the best physicality and talents in all of Europe. All the teams are very big, and the physical level has been very high in that sense compared to the Spanish teams".

There have been 12 participating teams, starting with three Pro A farm teams and also without counting the local, Cholet Basket: J.L Bourg, Chorale Roanne and MSB from Le Mans. For Italy, Stellazzurra who is a regular powerhouse in Euroleague ANGT as one of the Italian representatives, and has even been a finalist. Get Better Academy, the premier training program in the Czech Republic was present. For Germany, Urspring Academy. From Estonia has been Audentes Sport. In Finland, Omnia Basket, one of the top two teams in the country and with NCAA D-1 talent on the roster. For Spain apart from the TBS representation, there has been Zentro Basket as well as Eurocolegio Casvi, both from Madrid. Next year will be the 40th anniversary of the tournament.

"The expectations that we set for ourselves were to be among the top positions again, since in the last edition we were in we were last. What we wanted was to redeem ourselves a bit and return to the path of victory, go through the qualifiers and play important games. We beat Le Mans in our debut, we lost in the second match against Stellazzurra, with Insa Kane and Amadou Maiga missing the game due to injury, which is what our physios determined for that day. We ended up second in the group because Le Mans beat them Stellazzurra by forty, a miraculous result that allowed us to advance". Sánz asserted in the summary the importance of each of the games, and went into detail about the rivals faced:

"In the Quarterfinals, the crosses have made us face the Finnish academy Omnia Basket, which has several players who are refugees from South Sudan like Morris Ugusuk, and also Okku Federiko, who are set to play in Division 1 very soon. Very tall players, two of 2.07m or more, several of 2.00m as well. Even though we had a hard time grabbing the rebound, we fought the whole game and we were pulling through little by little." Our Junior A ended up taking the game by far, beating the Finns 67-80, and sealing the pass to the Final Four for the first time.

With so many games on consecutive days, despite qualifying for the semifinals, the team suffered significant fatigue. It has been seen in defensive efforts, in the first leg for rebounds, and so on. We have been dominating the first half against Urspring Academy, playing very well, but they were getting us a lot of offensive rebounds. It was difficult for us to attack statically, although in transition we were fine, stealing balls, wearing them down. In the second half we just could not do it, we were too tired. And in the fight for third place against Le Mans, who we had beaten in the first game, we could no longer compete due to wear and tear.

"The note was to at least reach the Quarterfinals, and be above the Spanish teams. And look, we have reached the semifinals, it has been an excellent participation. We were ahead of Zentro, we beat international teams and on the way back he values reflection more and everything we have achieved. Individually, Simeon Maynard has been playing at a very high level, and I hope he translates this into the First Team. Insa Kane has stood out a lot, top scorer in several games, he has a style of game that we believe can help him reach French pro basketball in the future. And then, players like Daniel Ríos or Diosdado Krohnert have made an important demonstration that they can play at this level. Actually, all of them, very positive", our General Manager mentioned.