Rīgas Zeļļi: Market Share Loss & Competitor Rise

Playing the home game in Rēzekne, “Rīgas žeļli” lost with the result 76:78 (20:17, 21:25, 23:20, 12:16).

With the failure, the Riga team’s streak of 14 victories in the Latvian-Estonian league was interrupted.

A little more than half a minute before the end of regular time, the people of Riga were in the lead, but after accurate free throws by their opponents, they did not realize their attack. Jalen Peggis had chances to tie the game in the closing seconds, but he missed two free throws after his second missed free throw.

In the Latvian team, Frenky Fidler stood out with 18 points, six rebounds and four assists, Rodijs Macoha scored 14 points and caught five balls, Pegīs had 11 points, seven rebounds and four assists, while Rolands Šulcs and Roberts Bērziņš scored nine points each.

Dylan Painter scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the opponents.

“Rīgas zeļļi” with 14 victories in 16 matches have fallen to the second place, but the Tartu team has returned to the leading position with 13 victories in 14 matches.

It has already been reported that “VEF Rīga” beat Keila’s “Coolbet” team at home with a score of 105:62 (27:9, 25:19, 29:19, 24:15).

In the LIBL, Latvia is represented this season by “University of Latvia”, “Liepāja”, “Ogre”, “Rīgas zeļļi”, “Valmiera Glass”/”Vidzemes Augstskola”, “Ventspils” and “VEF Rīga”, while Estonia is represented by Keila’s “Coolbet”, Tallinn’s “Kalev”/”Cramo”, “Keila”, Tallinn’s “TalTech”/”Alexela”, “Tartu University”/”Maks & Moorits”, Pärnu’s “Transcom” and “Viimsi”.

In the main tournament, the teams play two rounds, with the best eight entering the quarter-finals and fighting for a place in the final four.

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 competition. “Ventspils” basketball players became the first winners of the league in the final four tournament.

“VEF Rīga” became the champion last season.