TTT Riga lose to Israel's Elitzur in EuroCup despite erasing 14-point deficit
Latvian women's basketball club TTT Riga lost 76-82 at home to Israel's Elitzur in their third Group F game of the FIBA Women's EuroCup. The hosts had wiped out a 14-point gap, but the visitors restored their lead late on.
Latvian women's basketball club TTT Riga lost on Monday in Riga in the third game of their FIBA EuroCup group stage, a European club competition for women's teams. In Group F, the hosts fell 76-82 (20-31, 21-15, 15-22, 20-14) to Elitzur of Ramla, Israel. The result complicates the Latvian side's push for a place in the play-offs.
How the game unfolded
TTT Riga led only at the very start, when Karlīne Pilābere scored the first two points. The visitors then scored seven points, followed by an eight-point run and a basket by Ana Poceka, and held an 11-point advantage at 17-6 at one stage of the first quarter.
Early in the second quarter, a three-pointer by Limari Thomas stretched Elitzur's lead to 14 points (36-22). TTT Riga then clawed back almost the entire deficit, and after a three-pointer by Šarlote Skrebele it was 40-41. The hosts could not move in front, but in the 33rd minute Laura Grinmane levelled the game at 47-47 with a long-range shot.
The visitors quickly rebuilt a ten-point cushion, 60-50, after a long-range shot by Shira Tirosh, and kept the lead until the end. Riga never got closer than four points afterwards.
Group standings
Group F leaders are Italy's Umana Reyer Venezia with three wins in four games. Elitzur have two wins in three games, TTT Riga have one win, and Romania's Universitatea Cluj from Cluj-Napoca have two losses.
Earlier in the tournament, TTT Riga won 84-62 away at Universitatea Cluj and lost 72-91 at home to Umana Reyer. Elitzur had already played Umana Reyer twice, losing 64-78 first and then winning 67-64. The two teams meet again in Riga on Wednesday, as Elitzur also play their home games there.
Tournament format
Forty-eight clubs compete in 12 groups in the main round. The top two teams from each group, plus the four best third-placed sides, advance to the play-offs. TTT Riga are playing in the EuroCup main round for a fourth straight season; last year they won two of six games and did not advance.
