Valmiera basketball team heavily beaten by France's Elan Chalon in FIBA Europe Cup
Latvia's Valmiera Glass/ViA lost 77:109 away to France's Elan Chalon in their third Group F game of the FIBA Europe Cup. Valmiera have won one of their three games so far.
Latvian basketball club Valmiera Glass/Vidzemes Augstskola (Valmiera Glass/ViA) lost 77:109 (26:31, 19:26, 19:28, 13:24) away to France's Elan Chalon on Tuesday in their third Group F game of the FIBA Europe Cup main tournament, a second-tier European club basketball competition. The result leaves Valmiera with one win in three games in the race for a top-two group finish, which earns a place in the next round.
How the game went
Verners Kohs and Brice McBride led Valmiera with 18 points each. Aminu Mohammed scored ten points and added nine rebounds, four assists and five steals. Davis Ozers contributed nine points, while Deren Williams had eight points and six assists. For the hosts, Grant Holden was the top scorer with 18 points.
Group F standings
Valmiera opened the tournament with a 77:79 loss to Kosovo's Bashkimi, then beat Tallinn's Bigbank/Kalev 82:74 in the second game. Elan Chalon, for their part, won 79:72 against Britain's Manchester in their opener and lost 65:74 to Turkey's Korfez in their second.
After three rounds, Elan Chalon have two wins, while Valmiera have one, as do Bigbank/Kalev and Korfez, who have played two games each. Bashkimi have one win from one game, and Manchester have lost their only game. The Kosovan and British clubs' meeting in the second round did not take place because Bashkimi could not travel to Manchester, so Bashkimi may be handed a technical defeat.
Tournament format
The FIBA Europe Cup main tournament features 48 teams split into eight groups, each playing two rounds of matches. The top two teams in every group advance to the second round, where 16 clubs will be divided into four groups, and the top two from each reach the quarterfinals. Knockout ties are decided on aggregate over two games.
Riga club VEF Rīga also competes in the tournament and will play its third group game on Wednesday away to Romania's Oradea. Last season's FIBA Europe Cup winner was Spain's Bilbao.
