Lithuania, Russia claim Champions Cups
Tournament MVPs at the Sixth Champions Cup
From 3 December until 8 December, U14 boys and girls basketball teams from 13 participating nations arrived in Moscow, Russia for the Sixth Champions Cups.
The club teams, coming from Serbia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovenia, Poland France Russia Spain, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovak Republic and Ukraine, qualified to travel to Moscow on account of winning their respective domestic leagues.
Eight teams competed in the boy’s competition, beginning in a group stage with teams split into two groups.
From Group A Crvena Zvezda of Serbia navigated group action with a perfect 3-0 record, whilst Sdusshor CSKA from Russia also advanced to the semi-finals with a 2-1 record. In Group B, it was the Baltic clubs, BA S. Marciulionis from Lithuania and DSN Riga from Latvia who moved onto the semi-finals, with 3-0 and 2-1 records respectively.
Group B proved to be the stronger of the two groups with the Lithuanians and Latvians both winning their semi-finals to set up a second meeting of the tournament in the final.
Latvian club DSN Riga had a particularly tense semi-final encounter, clinging on to defeat their Serbian rivals Crvena Zvezda by two points,71-69.
In the final BA S. Marciulionis once more showed their superiority over their Baltic neighbours, easing out to a straightforward 74-46 win.
Hosts Sdusshor CSKA claimed the bronze medal with an 11-point, 84-73 win over Crvena Zvezda.
Eight teams also competed in the girl’s competition, playing with an identical format to the boys.
Local club YBC Sparta&K topped Group A whilst BK IMOS from the Czech Republic also moved into the semi-finals with a 2-1 record.
In Group B, Ridzene completed an impressive week for Latvian clubs in the competition by also advancing from Group play to the semi-finals, with Vasa-Basket from Hungary the other team moving from Group B to the next stage.
YBC Spart&K and Ridzene cruised in their respective semis to advance to the gold medal game where the Russians proved too strong, defeating the Latvians 76-49.
In the bronze medal game BK IMOS topped Vasa-Basket 79-59.
Courtesy FIBA Europe