VEF Rīga Wins Away in Second FIBA Europe Cup Game

Riga basketball club VEF Rīga won away from home in its second Group H game of the FIBA Europe Cup, a European club basketball tournament, and has now won both its games in the competition. The top two teams from each group advance to the second round, so the result moves the Latvian side closer to that stage.

Aleksandrovs' career-best game

Rihards Aleksandrovs played the highest-scoring game of his professional career, with 27 points, six rebounds and two blocked shots. He scored 17 of those points in the first 20 minutes. Jordan Sears added 18 points, five rebounds and eight assists. Marek Mejeris came close to a triple-double with 15 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Ojārs Siliņš contributed 13 points and eight rebounds, Luis Rodriguez also scored 13, and Caleb Asbury had 12 points, four rebounds and six assists.

For the hosts, Shakeel Price scored 25 points, Aleksa Stepanović recorded 15 points and ten rebounds, and Elijah Hawkins added 15 points and nine assists.

How the game unfolded

In the first half the hosts shot 43% from long range, scored nearly half of their points from three-pointers and led 56:51 at the break. At the start of the second half VEF Rīga forced several turnovers, quickly took the lead and went into the final quarter ahead 80:72. The hosts could not close the gap in the last ten minutes.

In its first home game in the competition, VEF Rīga beat Lokomotiv from Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 106:83. Group H also includes Fribourg of Switzerland, Oradea of Romania, Neftchi and Mykonos of Greece. The main stage features 48 teams in eight groups. Last season the tournament was won by Bilbao of Spain.