Marcis Steinbergs Photo: Manaxas “Baxi”
Latvian basketball player Mārcis Šteinbergs scored three points on Tuesday in the first quarter-finals of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Champions League, with Manrez’s “Baxi” team winning a convincing victory. The Manrez basketball players beat Malaga’s “Unicaja” at home with 86:63 (29: 4, 18:17, 20:22, 19:20).
Steinberg played for four minutes and 15 seconds, during which he scored one of two two-point shots and one of two free throws, won two rebounds, once played, violated the rules once, intercepted the ball and earned an efficiency of five and a +/- score of + 6.
The winners with 16 points and five assists were Joe Thomas, and the double-double with 11 points and rebounds was Chim Monk. Jonathan Barreiro scored 16 points for his opponents.
In Tuesday’s second game, Romania’s U-Banca Transilvania defeated Ludwigsburg’s MHP Riesen 76:73 (18:13, 19:21, 18:22, 21:17). Patrick Richard scored 14 points for the home team and six rebounds, and John Reidebo scored 16 points for the guests.
Teams that win two games will make it to the final four. The winner of the final four will be announced in Bilbao, Spain from May 6 to 8. In the regular tournament, 32 teams are divided into eight subgroups of four units each. The winners of the sub-groups immediately secured a place in the second stage, where they were joined by eight more teams, which were cleared in a “play-in” series between the second and third place teams in the group. “VEF Rīga” reached the “play-in” round, where the French club Dijon JDA lost in two games. The Spanish club “San Pablo” in Burgos triumphed in the finalist tournament held in Nizhny Novgorod last May.
