BK “Liepāja” basketball players Photo: Ģirts Ģertsons / estlatbl.com
On Saturday, Liepāja celebrated the victory in the Latvian-Estonian Basketball League (LIBL) game by beating the Parnu Sadam basketball players. “Liepāja” won with 84:70 (20:15, 18:23, 22:16, 24:16). The visitors were in the lead for most of the first quarter, with Michael Kirves taking the biggest lead (7-0) in less than two minutes.
Later, the reins took over the reins, reaching 23:15 at the beginning of the second quarter after Kārlis Siliņš’s three-point shot, but at the end of the quarter the guests took the lead again (38:34 after Kirves’ two-point shot). The home team continued to play better, starting in the second half with a break of 17: 6, and secured the victory.
Siliņš scored 21 points and eight rebounds, Zigmārs Raimo scored 17 points and Oskars Hlebovickis scored 16 points and Gustavs Jakubauskis scored 11 points. The Latvian player Andris Misters was the second most successful player of the team with 15 points. Kirves was the top scorer with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
“Liepāja” is in the 12th position in the tournament table with five victories in 21 games, while “Parnu Sadam” is taking the seventh place with ten wins and 11 losses. The people of Liepāja had won the last victory on February 1, when they beat Rakvere’s “Tarvas” with 86:79, but after that they had experienced five failures.
In turn, the Pärnu team had won two games in the last five games, gaining success over Ventspils with 94:79 and the University of Latvia with 80:56. The two teams had already met once this season, winning the victory for Pärnu basketball players with 79:68.
In the LIBL main tournament, the teams will play a two-round tournament until March 20. The top eight will compete in the quarter-finals, with the winners determined by the sum of two games. LIBL champions are expected to be determined in the final four tournament. The season will end with the elimination games of the Latvian and Estonian championships.
14 teams – six Latvian teams – “VEF Rīga”, “Ogre”, “Ventspils”, “Valmiera Glass” / “Vidzeme University”, “University of Latvia” and “Liepāja” participate in the LIBL championship in the season of 2021/22, as also eight Estonian teams – Tallinn “Kalev” / ”Cramo”, Rapla “Avis Utilitas”, “Parnu Sadam”, “University of Tartu” / “Maks & Moorits”, Rakvere “Tarvas”, Tallinn “Kalev”, “TalTech” / Optibet and Häme’s Viimsi.
