“University of Latvia” (LU) won the “Pafbet” Latvian-Estonian Basketball League (LIBL) match on Wednesday, while “Valmiera Glass”/”Vidzemes Augstkola” experienced another failure in another game. LU beat the Rakvere “Tarvas” team at home with a score of 99:56 (24:19, 33:9, 22:16, 20:16).
Reinis Avotiņš was the most productive among the winners with 19 points, Toms Skuja added 12 points and nine assists, and Edvards Mežulis, scoring 11 points and grabbing ten rebounds, collected a double-double. In the visiting team, Antuns Maricevičs stood out with 15 points and seven rebounds, Volodymyrs Shevchenko scored another 13 points.
Meanwhile, in the home game, Valmiers lost to Viimsi from Habnēme with the result 71:83 (14:18, 15:27, 22:16, 20:22), experiencing the sixth defeat in a row. Tervel Beks scored 19 points for the home team, and Valters Veveris collected 13 points, who also had five assists. The success of “Viimsi” was facilitated by Malik Topin, who was by far the top scorer with 26 points, 11 rebounds and three assists.
LU has achieved three victories in six matches and the success achieved allowed to rise to the tenth place, while the Valmiera team has not achieved victories in six matches and ranks last in the 16-team competition.
Latvia is represented in the tournament by six teams – “VEF Rīga”, “Ventspils”, “Ogre”, “University of Latvia”, “Valmiera Glass”/”Vidzemes Augstskola” and “Liepāja”. Estonia is represented by nine teams – “Parnu Sadam”, “University of Tartu”/”Maks & Moorits”, Tallinn “Kalev”/”Cramo”, Tallinn “TalTech”, Rapla “Avis Utilitas”, Rakvere “Tarvas”, Tallinn ” Kalev”/”Audentes”, “Viimsi” from Hābnēmes and newcomer “Keila”. Also, the Ukrainian team “Prometey” of Slobojansk competes in the tournament. The Ukrainian team is participating in the LIBL competition for the first time.
The best men’s basketball clubs of Latvia and Estonia played in a joint championship for the first time in the 2019 season, when 15 teams participated. In the “Final 4” tournament, “Ventspils” basketball players became the first winners of the league. Last year, “VEF Rīga” basketball players were crowned LIBL champions, who beat “Viimsi” from Hābnēmes in the decisive match, while “Parnu Sadam” won bronze.
Tournament table
