In the Latvian U16 Baltic Cup in Kaunas, in the third round of the girls’ tournament, the Latvian team beat the Estonian national team – 84:58 (21:15, 43:34, 67:46) and won the first place in the tournament with three victories.
As in the games with both Lithuanian teams, the Latvians were superior in the fight against baskets (50-41) and in the accuracy of three-point shots (9/19 – 4/24), as well as often intercepted the ball (18-11) and skillfully used the mistakes of opponents (29 -16).
Katrīna Ozola 19 points and 9 rebounds, Luize Sila 16 + 9, Andija Sedliņa 13, Līva Liniņa 12 + 10 atl.
Latvian U16 national team head coach Aigars Nerips:
“A valuable tournament and the second trophy this season – after winning the Baltic Sea Cup in January, which now seems a very long time ago.
There were good and not so good episodes in each game, reminding that everyone, including the leaders, still has a lot of work to do to improve and stabilize their mastery. Several basketball players have good prospects, provided they continue to work.
The Lithuanians had divided their players into two approximately equal teams. Both victories were not easy, but every time we found opportunities to neutralize the opponents’ trumps and take advantage of their weaknesses. By joining forces, Lithuanians will be stronger, but we would not be weaker. In addition, for various reasons, several basketball players remained at home who could have helped
Unfortunately, at the beginning of the last match, after a collision, unpleasant injuries broke out and two basketball players of our main five – Raina Tomašicka and Tīna Grausa – could not continue the game. Others had more playing time, and our dominance was not particularly affected.
The organizers of the tournament, this time without consulting the coaches, awarded the prize for the best player of our team to Louise Sila, but the most valuable player of the whole tournament was Raina Tomašickas, who was more diverse this time than before.
It is nice to end the summer work cycle with three victories. We have made good use of the difficult time to promote the progress of the players. “
