BC “Prometey” – BC “VEF Riga” (Latvia). October 15. At 17:15. Latvian-Estonian basketball league Pafbet. 3rd tour. Olympic Centre Rimi. Video broadcast YouTube channel “DIVISPORT BASKETBALL”.
Three days after the historic victory over Lithuanian “Lietkabelis” in the group tournament 7DAYS EuroCup “Prometey” will switch to the programme of the official matches in the Latvian-Estonian league Pafbet. Tomorrow, on October 15, one of the central matches of the regular season will be held, where our team, as a host team will play against BC “VEF Riga”.
“VEF Riga” is a real pride of Latvian basketball. The club was founded in 1958 under the auspices of “GEZ” – the state electrical engineering plant. During the Soviet Union time, VEF became the bronze medallist of the USSR Championship (in 1960, 1966 and 1991).
The 64-year history of “Prometey” opponent was not uninterrupted. The club ceased to exist, but later, in 2007 was renewed. VEF straightaway advanced to the leading positions in their homeland, becoming the best team of Latvia 8 times. Regarding the history of VEF performances in the international club competitions, it is quite rich. The club from the Latvian capital city participated in six EuroCup tournaments, however didn’t achieve considerable success participating only twice in the second group tournament. This year’s season became the third one for VEF in the Champions League. In the 2020/2021 season, they obtained 4 victories in 6 matches on the first group stage, but lost in all 6 matches of the second one. From 2007 until 2019 they played in the United VTB League, advanced to play-off three times, however did not get past the 1/4 final (in 2013, 2017 and 2018).
In the Latvian-Estonian basketball league VEF performs much better. The team from Riga participated in final matches in all three tournaments (In 2019/2020 season the tournament was not finished due to the pandemic). In the first two finals they lost to their rivals (first to “Ventspils” and then to Estonian “Kalev”), and on the third time they became the best team of the league after a confident victory over Estonian “Viimsi” in the decisive match – 95:64.
VEF started this year’s season as a reigning champion of the LEBL, but unexpectedly lost to “Liepaja” 93:98 in their first match of the tournament. The team of the 37-year-old coach Janis Gailitis partly recovered in the second tour beating “Ventspils” with the score of 100:81. VEF is also participating in the group tournament of the Champions League. They started this tournament with two losses. First, they lost to the Portugal “Benfica” (76:89); and on Tuesday, on October 11, they lost in the away match to the Spanish “Manresa” (59:88).
Now, the priority task for VEF is to improve their results in both tournaments at once. The team’s fans hope it may happen in the near future, as the roster consists of quite qualified players. Among the leaders, there are legionnaires (first of all, Americans Nysier Brooks and Daniel Hamilton) as well as local players (Maris Gulbis, Kristers Zoriks). American giant Nysier Brooks (213 cm height) scored 20 points in the first match of the Champions League against “Benfica”. Daniel Hamilton, the team’s number three, became the most productive player in both VEF matches in LEBL. His colleague, 37-year-old Maris Gulbis is the best team’s shooter, Krister Zorkis, a player of the Latvian National team, is the best assistant. The main competitor of Zoriks is the 25-year-old Ukrainian player Vitaliy Zotov. He is well-known to Ukrainian fans for his performances in “Mykolayiv”, “Khimik” and “Dnipro”.
Already tomorrow, VEF will try to improve their tournament position in LEBL in the confrontation with “Prometey”, who played two starting games of the tournament more than confidently. This confrontation of the two teams, that are considered the main contenders for winning the league, is promising to be hot and intriguing. To follow the course of the match, watch the video broadcast on YouTube channel “DIVISPORT BASKETBALL” starting at 17:15
