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The Third International Amateur Basketball League tournament ( IABL) in Druskininkai. An absolute Kaunas and Latvian teams predominance as well as a surprise from Russia

On 21 February , 2015 the third IABL tournament took place in a Lithuanian health resort Druskininkai. Although according to the previous agreement the tournament had to take place in Sankt Petersburgh, due to the existing unstable political situation, on the basis of the agreement among all the teams the decision was taken to hold the tournament in Druskininkai Lithuania.

Kaunas basketball league provided Russians with assistance to organize the tournament by approving themselves once again as a perfect expert in the field of organizing such tournaments.

There were 6 matches in the tournament. The first three took place in the gym of „Atgimimo“ gymnasium, the rest three took place in Druskininkai sport hall.

The teams from Latvia and Belarus were the starters. It seems that Latvians arrived to this tournament with the strongest team ever in the course of four years. During the time of overall match Latvians made Belarus team to forget about the victory so the team from Latvia won the game in a result 96:66. As some important players were absent, the Belarus team had difficulties in the fight with the team from Latvia, the team really worth to be the winners.
Oskars Rusmanis scored 25 points for the winners, Maksim Radčuk scored 24 points for the Belarus.

A team KKL from Kaunas, made of players from Sport Obsession, led by coaches Modestas Vaškūnas and Andrius Vaicekauskas and a formal tournament host Russian team were the second ones .
Russian team forces were made of just 6 players, though it was not an obstacle to fight with equal levels against significantly numerous in forces team from Kaunas as later events showed on the basketball site. During the first two halfs Russians attacked by getting down to the flaps of the representatives from the city of basketball and made them for almost 20 minutes to be in the position of chasing. The teams had a break with the result 50:50.

KKL team realising that there were no jokes with rivals, showed their face and since the first minutes of the third half fastened the rate of the game, pressed the rivals and gained the advantage against them rapidly. This half was won by the 23 points score and practically the mentioned 10 minutes determined the end of the game. The final result was 110:81.

Karolis Pupinis from the winning team and Sergej Cises from the losing team both scored 27 points as well as both recaptured 15 rebounds.

For the third match the fight was between a team from Vilnius made on the basis of “Tegros“ and a guest team from Ukraine.
As it was expected, this meeting was between equivalent rivals. At first Vilnius team invaded ahead, but Ukrainians constantly stepped after and though Lithuanians for one moment during the third half gained 20 points difference, guests from Ukraine managed to reduce to minimum. However, players from Vilnius were more accurate and had cold nerves, thus celebrated the victory with the result 101:95.

Dainius Novickas scored 35 points for the winners, Roman Dmitrenko scored 22 points for the Ukrainians.

Later on the tournament battles moved to a spacious Druskininkai sport hall. KKL and Belarus teams gave a trial to each other. Recently in the first IABL tournament, the mentioned both teams has already played a game once , where after a persistent fight the winning team was from Kaunas. During the match of the secont round, a fierce battle was expected as well, though this prognosis did not come true. Since the very first minutes from the start Kaunas team moved away from rivals at a blistering speed, where the result 65:21 has become overwhelming after two halfs. Belarus were helpless against powerful game of the oponents, who were successful in anything they do. After the break KKL team has reduced the speed and allowed Belarus team to reveal themselves more. The result was 117:66.

Kaunas team Arminas Šaulys scored 18 points, Aleksej Korytko 16 points for the Belarus team. Besides, it is worth to mention that during the match all players of the winning team distinguished themselves where 7 of 9 players scored double digit points.

In the last but one match of the tournament Latvian and Ukraine national teams have met on the site. This game must be considered to be the most beautiful decoration of the tournament in Druskininkai, as the tournanent was full of tough fights, outbreaks of emotions as well as spectacular episodes.

Since the very first minutes representatives from Latvia with a very strong team have broken away from the rivals. The Ukrainians did their best, although they were not successful to fulfill their coaches tasks. The scenario was similar to the one as with Vilnius team. They were constantly in the role of the chasing ones and at the end of the match they lost their power. The Ukrainian team lost the game in a result 87:89.

Martins Motivans and Arturs Kramins each scored 18 points, Dmitrij Briancev scored 17 points for the Ukrainians.

Finally teams from Vilnius and Russia, the latter as a formal host of the tournament, appeared on the site of Druskininkai sport hall. There were just 6 players in Russian team, though it was not an obstacle to fight against more powerful rivals and to present this tournament with a surprise. The game was followed by an equal and fierce fight all the time, however constantly Russian team was slightly ahead. Vilnius team had a hope to catch a moment and take the lead and to win a game. Unfortunately, this moment has not come as every successful attack of Vilnius team was followed by the same successful rivals response , thus at the end of the match Lithuanians were broken by Russians and won the match in a result 94:78. The rivals should be praised for such a fight as their forces were significantly small, and as far as Vilnius team, the latter has not properly evaluated the rivals and suffered painfully for that.

Sergej Cises scored even 33 points for Russians,Robertas Bitinas – 26 points for Vilnius team.

After the tournament Latvia and Kaunas are on the top of the tour match standing, sharing 1-2 positions, Vilnius and Ukraine stand for the 3-4 positions, and the last 5-6 positions share Russia and Belarus national teams.So we are looking forward to the most interesting events. Four matches of the regular season are left. Then it would be obvious who will fight against in a shoot-off match.

During the closing party of the tournament, that was arranged in Druskininkai Aqua park, the leaders of the teams congratulated everybody and the most valued players of each team were awarded.

Here is a list of players rewarded as MVP:
The Ukrainian national team – Roman Dmitrenko
The Belarus national team – Pavel Moroz
The Russina national team Sergej Cises
The :Latvian national team – Oskars Rusmanis
Vilnius team – Robertas Bitinas
Kaunas team – Karolis Pupinis

Andis Cirulis, a strategist of the Latvian national team was rewarded as the best coach, who gained two victories..

The next tournament, organised by Vilnius, takes place on 21 March in Kėdainiai sport hall, then on 9 or 16 May follows the Latvian tournament in Riga and the final tour is arranged on 13 June in Slovenia health resort Portoraže on the Adriatic coast with a presentation ceremony of the final awards.