BC “Ventspils” (Ventspils, Latvia) – BC “Prometey” – 94:96 (32:21, 18:31, 16:23, 28:21). December 30. Latvian-Estonian league Pafbet. Ventspils (Latvia). Olympic centre “Vetspils”. 950 spectators.
BC “Ventspils”: Ausejs*, captain (16), El-Amin* (22 + 6 assists + 3 steals), Vasiljevic* (3 + 7rebounds), Jaunzems* (18), Zakis* (6), Birkans (11), Francis (10), Mezulis (6), Salnajs (2).
BC “Prometey”: Kennedy*(0), Bobrov* (2), Agada* (17 + 6 rebounds + 6assists), Gray* (22), Odiase* (16), Lypovyy, captain (9), Balvin (8 + 8 rebounds), Tkachenko (7), Sanon (2), Clavell (12), Lukashov (1).
The programme of the regular season games of the 2023 Latvian-Estonian league, which will become a history in one day, was capped with the match in Latvian Ventspils between the local club and our "Prometey". This confrontation could easily be named as one of this game week central matches, which was actually confirmed by the events that were happening on the floor.
The hosts of the court started the match briskly - 7:2 in the 2nd minute and 16:11 after the first five minutes. In this game segment, "Ventspils" surpassed the guests in all shooting indicators. During the next five minutes, the flow of the game was not changed: the players of "Ventspils" acted excellently and deserved to finish this quarter in their favour - 32:21. At that, the best sniper of the LEBL Ishmael El-Amin recorded 11 points at once in his asset. Gints Fogels' squad, as it was before, shot perfectly from the field, and their two-point shooting percentage was simply cosmic - 76.
In the beginning of the second ten-minute segment, the "titans" significantly improved their defensive actions, which helped them, with a 10:2 spurt in the first two minutes of the quarter, reduce their lag to only one possession - 31:34. "Prometey" completely intercepted the initiative and in the 18th minute finally, after an accurate three-pointer by Ivan Tkachenko, took the lead for the first time - 48:46. Ronen Ginzburg's team significantly improved the converting percentage of offensives from the perimeter, bringing it to 45 after Tkachenko's shot. "Prometey" went for the long break in a status of the leader (52:50).
A lot of interesting things awaited the fans of both teams after the long break. The performance of opponents dropped significantly, but the degree of confrontation remained quite high. The “titans” constantly led in score for the entire 20 minutes of the second half of the game, but their handicap got over 10 points just once.
"Ventspils" completely justified the status of the best Latvian yteam today according to tournament indicators in the league. In the 36th minute, the hosts came close to the "titans" - 78:80. One minute after that, Rob Gray hit a timely long-range shot, and 144 seconds before the siren, Caleb Agada pulled a rebound on the opponent’s board and after his layup, the guests' advantage reached three possessions - 90:83.
However, "Ventspils" managed to respond, reducing the lag to one point - 92:93. An individual drive by Caleb Agada, his one accurate shot out of two from the foul line and El-Amin’s mistake in the last “Ventspils” attack were the decisive moments of the match.
As a result, "Prometey" gathered an extremely difficult win with a score of 96:94, and already on January 2, our team is waiting for the next confrontation in the league. The opponent is "Latvian University".
