The girls of the Latvian U15 national team in Tallinn beat the Lithuanian U15 national team in the last game of the U15 Baltic Cup – 73:64 (22: 8, 41:33, 63:47) – and finished second in the tournament. The cup was won by the Estonian team, which won both games.
The Latvian team gained a significant advantage already in the first quarter. Further, at times, the predominance fell below the 10-point limit, however, each time the Latvians managed to slow down the offensive of the opponents.
Throughout the game, the Latvian team won the fight against the baskets (47-43) and attacked much more accurately from close and half distance (2p.20 / 39 – 17/57), but made a lot of mistakes (31-21).
Laura Puriņa scored 15 points and won 8 balls, Elīna Briede 13, Kate Kondratjeva 11.
Andris Steļmahs, head coach of the Latvian U15 girls’ team:
“In training we created girls at intensity and speed, but in the first game yesterday we experienced a small culture shock with the Estonians – in international games everything happens much faster than usual in our Youth League. In addition, opponents are punished much more cruelly for technical errors and non-unblocking.
Glad that we adjusted quite quickly and the game with the Estonian team went point by point. Lacking accuracy was lacking to win. The Estonians pulled into the penalty area, but we were unable to take free throws and hit from afar. In defense, our long players had a hard time acting one-on-one, but we deliberately did not try to simplify the game, which would not bring any long-term benefits.
We watched the video of the first game, paid attention to mistakes and today we could see that the girls had drawn conclusions against the Lithuanians. There was both fighting spirit and a fighting mood – without these qualities, there is nothing to do on the field.
We will discuss the obtained lessons – which was good to work on – with the players, I will also inform the coaches of sports schools. We will continue to work. “
The organizers of the Latvian team’s best player award were given to Aleksandra Stepanova.
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