Basketball: Rīgas zeļļi Beat Liepāja at Home in Latvian-Estonian League
Riga basketball club Rīgas zeļļi beat Liepāja 85:69 at home on Saturday in the Latvian-Estonian Basketball League. With five wins, the Riga side sits third in the standings.
Basketball club Rīgas zeļļi defeated Liepāja 85:69 at home on Saturday in a regular-season game of the Latvian-Estonian Basketball League (LIBL), a joint championship of the two countries' top men's clubs. The win kept the Riga team near the top of the table, while Liepāja's difficult start to the season continues.
The quarter scores were 21:20, 20:14, 24:19 and 20:16 in favor of Rīgas zeļļi. The opening period was close, but the hosts held the lead in every quarter afterwards.
Top performers
Klāvs Čavars and Toms Skuja scored 16 points each for the hosts. Skuja also added five rebounds and eight assists. Tailers Vols contributed 11 points and eight rebounds, and Rolands Šulcs scored 10.
For the visitors, Edgars Lasenbergs scored 13 points, Rodijs Mačoha had 12 points and seven rebounds, and Ivo Tamms added 11 points.
Standings
Rīgas zeļļi now have five wins from the same number of games played and are third in the table. Liepāja has one win in six games, against Rīgas ekselences juniori, and is 12th among the 15 teams.
About the competition
In the regular season, teams play two rounds, and the best eight advance to the quarterfinals. The champion will be decided in a final on 10 April 2027, with the bronze medal game a day earlier.
Eight Latvian clubs play in the league this season: Latvijas Universitāte, Liepāja, Ogre, Rīgas ekselences juniori, Rīgas zeļļi, Valmiera Glass/Vidzemes Augstskola, Ventspils and VEF Rīga, along with seven Estonian clubs. The joint championship was first played in the 2019 season, when Ventspils won as the league's first champion. Last season's title went to Valmiera Glass/Vidzemes Augstskola.
