VEF Riga concedes 40 points in final quarter, exits Champions League qualifying
Basketball club VEF Riga lost on the road to Warsaw's Legia and will no longer pursue a spot in the FIBA Champions League, continuing its season in the Europe Cup instead.
Latvian basketball club VEF Riga played the second qualifying round of the FIBA Champions League on Thursday in Bulgaria, losing 95:102 to Poland's Legia Warsaw (referred to as "Dziki" in the source). The quarter-by-quarter score was 24:25, 19:15, 26:22, 26:40 in favor of the Polish side.
The Riga side led by seven points heading into the final quarter, but the opponent sharply increased its offensive output in the last ten minutes, exploiting VEF's defensive lapses to score 40 points in the period and seize control of the game.
For the second straight game, import player Jordan Sears led VEF's scoring, finishing with 33 points and six assists. Caleb Asberry added 15 points, Ojars Silins scored 11, and Mareks Mejeris contributed ten. For the winners, Joseph Girard top-scored with 25 points, while Zayne Watterman posted 24 points and eight rebounds.
What comes next
Legia Warsaw will face the winner of the Manchester–Breogan (Spain) qualifying pair in the semifinal round. VEF Riga, meanwhile, will continue its season in the fourth-tier FIBA Europe Cup, landing in Group H alongside Greece's Mykonos, Bulgaria's Lokomotiv Plovdiv, one team advancing from qualifying, plus Romania's Oradea and Switzerland's Fribourg, which drop down from the Champions League.
In the first qualifying round, VEF Riga beat Azerbaijan's Landau Lions 105:88 on Monday. Last season VEF Riga finished fourth in the Latvian Basketball League and won bronze in the Latvian-Estonian League.
