ULEB European Cup
Latvian basketball player Kaspars Bērziņš scored four points in the ULEB Eurocup game on Wednesday and together with the Panevėžys “Lietkabelis” team failed. The Panevėžys team conceded with the result 69:76 (22:20, 15:17, 17:20, 15:19).
Bērziņš scored four points in 11 minutes and 40 seconds on the field, taking two of the four two-point shots. He added four rebounds, two errors, three personal notes and a neutral efficiency score. Panajotis Kalaidzakis was the most productive in the ranks of Lietkabelis with 18 points. The home victory was provided by Will Camings, who scored 22 points.
In another game, Mārtiņš Meier’s Wroclaw “Šlask” lost to Andorra’s “Morabanc” with a score of 91:95, while Rodiona Kuruca’s “Partizan” defeated Trento’s “Dolomiti Energia” with 79:63. Both Latvian basketball players were not included in the teams in these matches.
Group A with 12 wins in 16 games is Kovis Helman Badalona’s “Joventut”, while Rodion Kuruc’s “Partizan” with 12 wins in 16 games is second. “Lietkabelis” with nine victories in 16 matches is the fifth, but “Šlask” with the balance 3-13 – the eighth in the competition of nine teams. All four teams represented by Latvians have qualified for the elimination tournament.
There are 19 teams participating in the Eurocupus, divided into two groups, where the teams will play in a two-round tournament. In Group A, after 16 games, the top eight teams will qualify for the playoffs. Last season, the championship title was won by the Monaco team, beating the Kazan team “Unics” in two games.
FIBA European Cup
Latvian basketball player Artūrs Strautiņš scored 12 points in the second semi-final game of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) European Cup on Wednesday, helping Reggio Emilia “UnaHotels” to win and enter the final. The Italian team beat the Aarhus Bakken Bears at 92:72 (31:10, 24:27, 22:19, 15:16), winning 164: 146 in two games.
Strautiņš was on the court for 23 minutes and 34 seconds, during which he scored 12 points, taking four of the five two-point shots, one of the four long shots and one of the two free throws. The Latvian basketball player also won three rebounds, played successfully once, intercepted and lost the ball once, collected two personal notes, +/- and an efficiency ratio of 11.
Justin Blake Johnson won the UnaHotels victory with 16 points and 11 rebounds, while Andrea Chincharini added 15 points and 18 assists. Travis Taylor saved 15 points for Aarhus. In the finals, the Reggio Emilia unit will face Istanbul’s “Bahcešehir Koleji”.
In the FIBA European Cup, 32 teams are divided into eight subgroups of four units each. After one round of the tournament, the second best teams in each group reached the second stage. The top two teams in each group made it to the quarterfinals, and the winners of each pair reached the semifinals in the sum of two games. The FIBA European Cup is the fourth tournament in the Old Continent.
Latvian basketball player Edmunds Elksnis scored 12 points on Wednesday, but it did not save his representative and Nikolai Mazur from the University of Tartu / Maks & Moorits in the semifinals of the European Nordic Basketball League from failure. The Tartu unit conceded to Wloclawek’s “Anwil” with a score of 74:80 (20:18, 14:19, 15:24, 25:19).
Elksnis was on the field for 26 minutes and 22 seconds, scoring 12 points out of ten long shots and three out of four free throws. He also won three rebounds, played seven times, lost the ball twice, earned two personal notes, provoked five opponents and finished the match with a +/- score of +13. The most successful team in Tartu with 14 points was Patrick Sals. John Matthew was the winner with 22 points.
In the second semi-final game “Šiauliai-7bet” with the result 84:73 beat the Czech team “Brno”. In the final on Thursday, Siauliai team and “Anwil” will fight for the first ENBL champion title, while the Tartu team and “Brno” will compete for the bronze. Eight teams from Latvia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus and Russia will start in the first season of ENBL, but after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the organizers of the tournament announced that the Russian and Belarusian clubs Krasnoyarsk Yenisei Mogilev Borisfen will be excluded from the competition.
The goal of ENBL is to bring together 16 teams next year, which would be divided into Baltic and North Sea divisions, adding clubs from the Nordic and Benelux countries. The organizers of ENBL have previously founded the European Women’s Basketball League (EWBL), which has proven to be an international tournament binding on clubs.
