On Sunday, the Latvian U-18 men’s basketball team won the battle for 13th place in the B division tournament of the European Championship in Romania.
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With the result 89:69 (23:14, 13:12, 28:16, 25:27), the Latvians defeated their peers from Hungary, who were also beaten in the subgroup tournament.
The continent’s strongest 16 national teams play in the A division, thus the Latvian team is in the 29th position in the European Championship.
Juris Vītols was the most productive with 18 points, who also added five assists, Daniels Baumanis scored 17 points, Frederik Meinarts had 15 points, and Pēteris Pinnis stood out with 11 points and 12 rebounds.
Adams Vārsegi scored 14 points for the Hungarians.
It has already been reported that Latvian basketball players lost 73:75 to Switzerland, 63:81 to Portugal and 62:77 to Romania. In the next two games, the Latvians defeated the Hungarians 64:58 and beat the Slovaks 74:58, but then lost to their peers from Austria 75:77. In the semi-final for the 13th place, the Belgians were defeated 83:48.
Head coach Juris Umbraško and his assistants Matīss Graudiņš and Oskars Virsis had invited 16 basketball players who grew up in 13 sports schools to the training camp. The first act of work took place in Krāslava, after which the team moved to Riga, where they played two test matches each with the junior national teams of Ukraine and Georgia, and also competed in the Baltic Cup.
In the test matches, the Latvians defeated the Ukrainians twice (64:49 and 60:58), but they split the victories with the Georgians in half (62:64 and 66:53). In the Baltic Cup, Latvia won 59:109 over Lithuania and lost to Estonia 75:78.
Several players contracted Covid-19 during the preparation.
The boys’ team born in 2004 managed to participate in the Baltic Sea Cup and an international tournament in Turkey at the beginning of 2020, but the European U-16 Championship scheduled for summer was canceled due to the pandemic. Last year, five basketball players currently included in the candidates participated in the FIBA ”Challenger” tournament, together with players a year older. In January 2022, Latvians lost to Czech and Estonian juniors in the Baltic Sea Cup in Tallinn.
The B division tournament of the European Championship takes place from July 29 to August 7 in the Romanian city of Ploesti. The three first place winners will get the right to play in the A division of the European Championship next season.
Latvian U-18 men’s basketball team: Juris Vītols, Frederiks Meinarts (both – “Liepāja”), Markuss Mamajs (LU/”BS Rīga”), Kristofers Karlsons, Dans Galdiņš, Daniels Baumanis (all – “Rīga”/DSN) , Roberts Vēveris (“Valmiera Glass”/ViA), Markuss Lastiņš (“Ogre”), Rihards Berkolds (“Gulbenes Buki”/BJSS), Rūdolfs Rudmiezis (“GBA Lions”, Czech Republic), Pēteris Pinnis (RSU/”VEF Rīga “), Francois Nkoy-Iles (no club).
