BC "Prometey" - BC "Tartu Ulikool Maks & Moorits" (Tartu, Estonia). October 29. 17:00. Latvian-Estonian basketball league Pafbet. 6th round Riga (Latvia). Olympic Center Rimi. Broadcast - "DIVISPORT BASKETBALL" YouTube channel.
For the second week in a row, “Prometey” awaits confrontation in the Latvian-Estonian league with a representative of the Estonian basketball elite. Last Saturday, our team surpassed the reigning national champion club “Parnu Sadam” on their site (77:71); and tomorrow, on October 29, at the Olympic Centre Rimi in Riga they will play with the second, following the last season results, team of Estonia, club “Tartu Ulikool Maks and Moorits”.
In the regular part of the Estonian championship of the 2021/2022 season, “Tartu” was only in 6th place, but they played brilliantly in the play-off instead. The team, having passed two stages, entered the final, where with the score of 0:3 conceded to the previous rival of the Ronen Ginzburg’s team in the LEVB “Parnu Sadam”.
Basketball club “Tartu” represents the second, regarding the population (a bit less than 100 thousands inhabitants) biggest Estonian city of the same name and have been writing their history since 1945. Already in 1949, the Tartu University team became the champion of the USSR. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, “Tartu” is one of the strongest clubs of Estonian league. Tomorrow’s opponent of “Prometey” is the 7-time champion of Estonia. “Tartu” last won the gold medals of the national league KML in the 2014/2015 season. After that, three times the team had an opportunity to become the strongest one in the country, but each time conceded to their rivals in the final play-off series: in the 2015/2016 and 2017/2018 seasons to “Kalev Cramo” and last season, as it was mentioned before, to “Parnu Sadam”.
The highest achievement of the club from Tartu on the European arena is advancing to the “Final Four” of the FIBA EuroCup in the 2007/2008 season. In the semi-final of the tournament, “Tartu” conceded to the Latvian “Barons”. Within this tournament, Ukrainian cubs “Dnipro” and “Khimik” crossed paths with “Tartu”.
This year, “Tartu Ulikool Maks and Moorits” extend their ambitions on 4 tournaments at once: the Championship and the Cup of Estonia, LEBL and the European Nothern Basketball League (ENBL). The last one even younger than LEBL: a previous season was the debut one. “Tartu” took 4th place in this tournament, conceding in the final to the future champion, the Polish “Anvil” (74:80), and in the match for the 3rd place – to the Czech “Brno” (76:80). In total, 8 teams participated in the ENBL, and in the summer of this year it was announced that 16 clubs from Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Israel and Ukrainian “Budivelnyk” would compete for the main prize.
In order to solve the most serious assignments in all tournaments, during the off-season, the management of “Tartu Ulikool Maks and Moorits” assembled a young but very balanced, on all lines on the court, roster. The team started in the LEBL quite well, obtaining 4 victories in 6 matches.
The most productive player of “Tartu” is 22-year-old Ukrainian big man Andriy Voinalovych. Andriy is well known to Ukrainian fans by his performance for “Khimik” from Yuzhne and “Kyiv-Basket”; he was also involved by Ainars Bagatskis in the main team of the country. In the six LEBL matches, he averaged 18.7 points per match. At the same time, in the penultimate game of the team against “VEF RIGA”, the number 4 of “Tartu” recorded in his assets 29 points. Another undeniable leader of “Tartu” is the Slovak center Tomas Pavelka (218cm height). He recorded double-double in 4 matches out of 6; and in two cases he lacked 1 and 2 scored points. Pavelka is the most effective player of “Tartu” in the LEBL – 23.8. Besides that, he makes almost 3 block-shots per match, which is a wonderful figure. With a great part of confidence, we can assume that it won’t be easy for big guys of “Prometey” to compete with Pavelka and Voinalovych under the backboards. The “Tartu” leaders in the back line are 23-year-old Estonian Mart Rosenthal (on average 7.2 assists and 1.7 steals per match) and 27-year-old American legionary Jalen McCLoud.
“Prometey” so far is the only team in the LEBL that did not suffer a single defeat. However, considering the experience of the matches of the Ronen Ginzburg’s team with “VEF Riga” and “Parnu Sadam”, it is possible to assume that the upcoming confrontation with “Tartu” will not be a piece of cake for them on the eve of the trip to Spain for the game of the 7DAYS EuroCup against “Joventut”.
To follow the course of events in the match “Prometey” – “Tartu Ulikool Maks and Moorits” watch the video broadcast on YouTube channel “DIVISPORT BASKETBALL” on October 29, at 17:00.
