Germany plowed through their first five games at the 2024 FIBA U20 Women’s EuroBasket with ease. Incoming Arizona freshman Mailien Rolf and her teammates reached the semifinals with an average winning margin of 20 points. Things weren’t so easy against France and Italy.
The team dropped their semifinal game against eventual champion France by a mere nine points on Saturday. On Sunday, the Italian team dominated them in the third-place game, defeating the Germans 70-48 in a smothering display on both ends of the court.
Rolf had some shining moments even in the losses. Her biggest highlight came on the final day against Italy. Her shot from just beyond the opponents’ 3-point line at the buzzer put the Germans within 7 points at the half.
Rolf gave Arizona fans a glimpse of what to expect when she finally comes to Tucson later this summer. The 19-year-old showed a pass-first mentality and a nose for rebounding that will bring new dimensions to the point guard position. Rolf has the will to rebound and always seems to be in the right place. She’s also more interested in looking for her teammates than in looking for her shot.
Her role in her team’s rebounding prowess was demonstrated on Sunday against Italy. With Frieda Bühner or Rolf on the bench, Italy secured one offensive rebound after another and made the German team pay.
Rolf struggled with her shooting percentage early in the tournament, but that improved as the tournament wore on. She shot just 26.7 percent in the group phase with her best performance being 33.3 percent against Serbia in the opener. Once the knock-out stage began, she never shot below 33.3 percent. In her final four games, she shot 45.8 percent.
Her preference for passing over shooting was demonstrated by rarely attempting double-digit shots. She took 10 shots in the quarterfinals against Slovenia, going 4 for 10, but never took more than six shots in the other six games. She averaged 5.6 shot attempts per contest.
Rolf ended the tournament with a 38.5 shooting percentage from the field. She hit 43.3 percent of her shots from 2-point distance, but her overall number was dragged down by a 3-point percentage of just 22.2. She also struggled from the free throw line where she went 5 for 12 (41.7 percent).
Rolf was prone to turnovers throughout the tournament, ending with 3.6 per game. That was a general issue with the entire German team. Part of that is related to the focus on getting the ball inside to Bühner, their dominant post player. The other players often tried to force the ball in even as Bühner was double or triple-teamed. It led to a lot of points for Bühner, who had a tournament-high 18.6 ppg, but it also led to a lot of turnovers as they tried to thread the needle or go over the top.
Over the team’s seven games, Rolf averaged 5.3 points, 8.7 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.7 blocks in 25.9 minutes per game. She finished the tournament tied for fourth in rebounds per game and tied for 17th in assists per game.
