In the opening game of the Latvian basketball Užava Cup competition, the basketball players of the Salaspils sports school experienced a loss against “Gulbenes Buki” on Wednesday at the Salaspils Sports Hall. The winners of the series will be determined in the sum of two games, the return match in a week in Gulbene.
Wednesday’s rivals had started the new season with victories in the first two games – Salaspilians in the Regional (ranking third) and Gulbenians in the National (ranking second) league. The difference in the class was manifested quite quickly – in the middle of the first quarter, the guests scored 10 points in a row and took the lead 20:7, but in the continuation of the first half, they increased the advantage to 43:24.
Soon after the break, the difference in the score approached the 30-point mark (26:53), but in the continuation, as the reserve players became more involved in the fight, it remained within the range of 22-25 points. Final score 49:71. Kristians Armanovs was the most productive member of the Salaspils sports school team with 14 points, no one else managed to reach the mark of ten points scored.
With the participation of two Pierīgas teams, two games were played in the Regional Basketball League tournament on Wednesday evening. The Mārupe Sports Center team, which had lost the first two games of the season, achieved its first success in Jelgava against the students of the Latvian University of Biosciences and Technologies – 75:61. The decisive advantage was gained in the middle of the second half with (59:49). Richard Alex Survillo scored 18 points, Leonards Kļaviņš 13 and Roberts Ciganskis 11 points.
BK “Adaži/Carnikava” visited the basketball club “Smiltene” and was in the lead until the middle of the second half, when the home team made a 15:2 breakthrough and continued the offensive in the fourth quarter – in the end, the Adažians suffered their third loss of the season, 64:85. For the guests, Rolands Dovgjallo scored 24 points and Jānis Ābols 16 points, but all partners could score only 24 points.
