JELGAVA, Latvia — Rock have claimed their first win of the season while Šiauliai have asserted their position near the top of the ladder following the latest Baltic Basketball League (BBL) action.
After having surprised many in claiming third spot in last year’s BBL competition, Estonian team Tartu Rock had only disappointed this season to date losing their first three games. This put them in the unenviable position of having to win against Liepājas Lauvas on Monday evening if they had any chance of repeating last season’s feat.
Rock started the game strongly with their two North American imports with Todd Abernethy and Scott Morrison getting them off to a 10-0 run. Obviously things would not stay this good all night and Liepājas Lauvas had their claws out as they started to pull themselves back into the game, but still found themselves down by five (18-13) at the end of the quarter.
A stronger second-quarter from the visitors saw them cut into the Tartu Rock lead as they trailed by just three at the half (30-27). The urgency was a lot more evident in Tartu Rock’s second-half performance as their imports began to pull the game away from Liepājas Lauvas to be leading 52-44 with a quarter left to play.
In the final quarter Liepājas Lauvas rallied to take the final quarter but it wasn’t enough to see the visitors home as Tartu Rock held on to come out victors 64-60.
Onto Tuesday night and the BBL moved to Šiauliai where the home side readied themselves to take on Ventspils of Latvia. Ventspils are one of the few teams to date that have proven they can mix it with the Lithuanians so many were looking forward to a tight encounter.
However, it looked like it would be one-way traffic as Šiauliai quickly established a strong lead to be up 26-17 after the first period. This placed Ventspils on the back foot for the remainder of the encounter.
Ventspils came out of their slumber in the second period as they rallied hard to win the second quarter by six and take a serious chunk out of the host’s lead. It was much the same in the third quarter as Ventspils continued to dominate the court offensively and defensively. This saw them trailing by just one point as the final period got underway.
However, Šiauliai began to play again like they had in the first quarter as their shooting hotted up for the final period. Fans were left on the edges of the seat as the teams matched each other shot for shot but in the end Šialiaui managed to hold onto their two point advantage to win 87-85.
