TwitterTo Podgorica for a place in the TOP 4
The day after Latvia celebrates its 96th birthday BK “Ventspils” will play a very important game for it in the EuroCup tournament facing their F group neighbours in the standings – “Buducnost”. A victory will allow Ventspils team to keep their fourth place in the group, while a loss will mean to consider the total of made and lost points.
Hosting “Buducnost” on their home court Ventspils celebrated their return to the tournaments organized by ULEB with a victory. During the game BK “Ventspils” was leading by 20 points, but during the fourth quarter guests cut the lead to -4 but still failed to get the lead, thus allowing Ventspils to hold off the victory – 82:75. Best scorers for Latvian team of that game were the American trio – Mire Chatman scored 19 points, while Jeray Grant and Troy Barnies added 12 points each. For guests the leading scorers were J.R.Reynolds with 18 points and Darko Planinic with 13 points.
After the face-off in Ventspils both teams have gotten one victory each, overpowering the same basketball club – Latvian champions got their victory over “Stelmet” with the result 79:69, while Montenegrins destroyed the Polish by 90:76. Thus BK “Ventspils” are one place higher and are the fourth with two victories, while “Buducnost” is fifth with only one victory. For Montenegrins a victory at home would mean improving their chances to get into the group’s Top 4, while the third victory for Ventspils team would mean holding on to its fourth position in the group.
At the start of the first game BK “Ventspils” had quite the problems with defensive rebounds, but as soon as the problem was solved Latvian team got their chances to start extending the lead. The fight for rebounds can be a crucial factor also during the game in Podgorica because “Buducnost” has their 2.11 m tall and slender Croatian centre Darko Planinic, as well as the 2.08 m tall forward Vladimir Dasic, and on average the hosts will dominate over their guests in height and in weight. Another crucial factor – the fans of “Buducnost” or “Barbarians”. The hot-blooded fans are very active not only during the games but also afterwards. During the last season they attacked Greek team’s PAOK bus near its hotel (and these teams are in the same group once again …), thus they earned their team to play two games without the audience. Now this penalty has been served.
“Buducnost” ended their first round of the EuroCup group tournament with a heavy defeat against PAOK 60:80, while Ventspils got its second victory. However during the local championship tournaments the results have been quite opposite – Montenegro champions won the game against “Zadar” 73:61 in the Adriatic League, while Ventspils got their first defeat in the local championship, losing at home to “Liepaja/Triobet” with 76:81. During this game Mire Chatman was left on the bench as he already had a minor leg injury before Ventspils game in Poland. Nevertheless, the whole team is on its way to Podgorica. Whereas “Buducnost” has officially signed a contract until the end of this season with the American point guard Omar Cook who was on trial period before that.
The game in Podgorica begins at 19.30 and it will be live broadcasted on Sportacentrs.com.
