The two leaders battled for the top spot in the tournament just a week after a blowout result in the first game between the two teams. This time, the outcome was different.
Rigas Stradina University (RSU) had lost against Kibirkstis Vilnius by a whopping 37-point margin away from home on March 6th. Coming into the matchup, both teams held a record of 19 wins and 2 losses.
Before the game, RSU captured an important win against Neptunas Klaipeda on Tuesday. Even though Kibirkstis were superior in the first game of the season, the Latvians pushed back on Friday.
The two teams battled back and forth in the first half with Riga holding a slight lead throughout the first 20 minutes. The difference between the squads stayed largely the same in the third quarter.
The beginning of the final 10 minutes was the difference maker. The Riga team slowly but surely built the lead and was already ahead by 10 points with 5 minutes remaining. It proved to be enough to capture the revenge win and the first spot in the regular season.
Evelina Otto led the winners with 17 points on a 5-for-9 shooting. Katrina Ozola added 16 points, while Enija Viksne was close to a double-double with 8 points and 10 assists.
Gintare Petronyte once again stood out on the Kibirkstis roster with 26 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists, and 9 drawn fouls for 31 PIR.
In other battles, Neptunas Klaipeda and LCC Klaipeda recorded convincing wins against BJBS Riga and Daugavpils University accordingly.
TTT Riga easily won versus Siauliai-Vilmers as well but it didn't help the team get to the 4th spot in the standings that would guarantee home-court advantage in the quarterfinals. Even though the team from Riga had more wins than the 4th-placed Aistes Kaunas, the Latvians had one game forfeited at the beginning of the season, for which TTT did not receive a single point in the standings, compromising the overall result.
With the regular season over, the quarterfinal pairs are already set.
#1 Rigas Stradina University vs. #8 Liepaja/LSSS
#2 Kibirkstis Vilnius vs. #7 LCC Klaipeda
#3 Neptunas Klaipeda vs. #6 TalTech Tallinn
#4 Aistes Kaunas vs. #5 TTT Riga
