Latvian U20 basketball players
The Latvian U-20 women’s basketball team won the third game of the European U-20 Championship subgroup tournament on Sunday in Sopron, securing a round of 16 duel with Poland. The Latvian U-20 national team prevailed over their peers from Ireland with a score of 85:45 (20:12, 12:6, 30:9, 23:18).
Enija Ķivīte and Marta Leimane each scored 17 points for the Latvian national team, Luīze Sila had ten points and six rebounds, but the most productive was Enija Vīksne, who scored nine points, gave nine assists and won six rebounds. Ella O’Donnell scored ten points for the opponents. It has already been reported that in the first match the Latvians won 65:64 against their peers from Serbia, but in the second they capitulated to Portugal 45:74. With two wins in three games, Latvian basketball players took third place in Group D and will meet Poland, the second place winner of Group C, in the round of 16 on Tuesday.
In the test matches before the tournament, the Latvian national team defeated Lithuania with 63:50 and 72:45 in Riga, in the test tournament in France they beat their peers from Germany with 67:58, they won over Sweden with 68:59 and lost to France with 53:81, in two matches at home with Finland, the victories were split in half (60:70 and 85:56), as well as Ukraine was defeated by 79:45. The European Championship takes place from July 8 to 16 in the Hungarian city of Sopron. Ainars Zvirgzdiņš and Rūdolfs Rozītis help Matīs Rožlapas in his work with the national team.
The European Youth Championships will resume after a two-year break. Until now, the teams of players born in 2002/2003 have only had the experience of the European U-16 Championship, but some basketball players included in the candidates have also participated in the European U-18 Championship and the U-17 World Cup. In 2018 and 2019, the Latvian team under the leadership of head coach Rožlapas won the ninth and eighth place respectively in the European Cadet Championships.
Latvian U-20 women’s basketball national team:
Elizabete Bulāne (Georgia Institute of Technology, NCAA), Ieva Korzāne, Vanesa Jas, Luize Sila (all – “TTT Riga”), Enija Viksne, Marta Leimane, Juta Harchenko, Elina Sičeva, Katrīna Ozola (all – “Riga Stradins University”) , Nikola Priede (“Rīga Juniores”/LU), Enija Ķivīte (“Liepāja”), Līna Loceniece (Wagner College, NCAA).
