In dynamic, fast and somewhat chaotic basketball, the FIBA Champions League season started with a victory VEF Riga basketball players who on Tuesday Arena Riga defeated the 2023 tournament champion Bonn with several breakthroughs in the second half Telekom Baskets. The success of the Riga team was forged by captain Dairis Bertāns with 31 scored points.
“There was good energy in the team, good energy in the stands. I was aware that there are many debutants of this level of games in the team – I had to pull a little and show the direction in order to reduce the starting fever in them,” Bertans was pleased with the performance shown. On this wave, the Latvian champions hope to continue in the middle of October, when they have to play against Ramatganas in Opava Maccabi.
A couple of years ago, in a conversation with the author of these lines, Dairis Bertāns critically assessed his age and admitted that there was nothing left of him Latvian rocketas the defender of the Latvian national team was called at the height of his career. “Rather someone Latvian kukuruznik,” the basketball player laughed at the time. VEF Regand the first opponents in this season’s Champions League did not laugh when the captain of the home team literally flew on the pitch, tearing Bonnas to pieces Telekom Baskets protection. In the first half alone, Dairis made 5 of 7 long-range shots and scored 22 points, in addition, he did a great job in defense. Often it was his intercepted balls that made the opponents make mistakes. “The last quarter was almost flawless both in attack and defense. When we play good defense, we fight, then everything looks easy for us,” said Bertans. The Latvian team intercepted 17 passes of the opponents and scored 23 points after the mistakes of the opponents. “I really liked Isufa Sanon’s first defense, when he covered the opponent’s leader Flandrus Fleming along the entire field and prevented him from getting a shot. This set the tone for aggressive defense throughout the game,” added coach Mārtiņš Gulbis.
In the first half of the game, the guests from Bonn had a slight advantage in general – they used well the width of their lineup rotation, as well as the height advantage at the bottom of the basket. “Vefi” coaches also found their reserves. The veteran Māris Gulbis, who was on the field for the first time this season due to an injury, was successfully involved in the fight. Ukrainian Isuf Sanon worked with great energy on the field, who in the second half increasingly managed to turn his fighting spirit into a productive attack, but at the end even the quarterback Harrison Cleary managed to hit his shots. The German team still managed to respond to the first breakthrough of the Riga players, but the next one decided the fate of the game.
At the same time, in the second game of Group E, another ex-champion of the Champions League, Athens AEK beat the Israeli club 80:71 at home. Maccabi Ironi. It is against the Ramatgan team that “Vefians” will continue the Eurocup season in two weeks. Due to the ongoing hostilities in Israel, the game will be played in the Czech city of Opava.
2024-10-02 18:14:06