“VEF Riga” | Photo: FIBA
The Latvian basketball club “VEF Rīga” lost on Tuesday in the last, sixth match of the main tournament of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Champions League, failing to qualify for the “play-in” round. Riga lost to Slovakian club Levice “Patrioti” with the result 69:85 (14:27, 24:21, 11:20, 20:17).
In order to enter the play-in, the Riga players had to win and hope for a loss of Szolniki to AEK Athens, which had already secured the first place in the group. In the second game, the Hungarian team was superior at home with 80:69.
In the Latvian team, Zahir Porter was the top scorer with 17 points and five assists, Iļja Sidorov scored 12 points, Arnaldo Toro had 11 points and 13 rebounds, and Adrian Andzhevs scored ten points. Ricky McGill scored 21 points for the winners, Will Karius had 16 points and eight rebounds, while Novak Music had 12 points each and Andre Wesson, who also had ten rebounds.
The Riga team had significantly more errors in this match (20/5) and the opponents converted them into 24 scored points.
In subgroup F, after six games, AEK has five victories, “Szolniki” and “Levice” have won three each, while “VEF Riga” ended the international season with one victory.
In the previous season, “VEF Riga” did not go beyond the first stage in its sixth season of the Champions League, taking the last place in the group where they had to meet AEK, Bonn “Telekom” and the Israeli team Ramatgan “Maccabi”.
In the first stage of the main tournament, 32 teams are divided into eight subgroups. The winners of the groups secure a place in the second stage, while another eight teams will be determined in the “play-in” round, in which the second and third place teams in the groups will participate. The tournament will be over for the last placed teams in the groups.
In the previous season, Malaga “Unicaja” won the tournament for the second year in a row, beating Istanbul “Galatasaray” basketball players 83:67 in the final.
