Other events in Baltic States

Latvian under-16 (U-16) men's basketball team, for the first time ever, advanced to the European U-16 Men's Basketball Championship's semifinals on Thursday by defeating Germany 53-39 (11-11, 15-11, 17-4, 10-13), informs LETA.

The game was largely decided in the third quarter when the Latvian team was able to score 13 points in a row and win the quarter 17-4. The top scorers for Latvia were Arturs Strautins with 11 points and Roberts Blumbergs with 10 points.

In the semifinal match tonight, Latvia will take on Spain, which beat Serbia 78-64 (21-10, 10-27, 29-9, 18-18) in the quarterfinals.

In the preliminary round of the tournament, Latvia beat Greece 74-67, Croatia 84-62, and Bosnia and Herzegovina 63-55 to go through to the second round. In the qualification round, however, Latvia suffered three defeats: 71-79 to Lithuania, 46-73 to Turkey, and 51-59 to Serbia.

Latvia therefore placed third in Group E and had to play Germany, the second-place finisher in Group F.

The other two semifinalists are Turkey, which beat Italy in the quarterfinals, and France that defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The roster of the Latvian U-16 men's basketball team participating at this year's European Championships is as follows: Kristers Zoriks, Arturs Banga, Roberts Dembskis, Arturs Strautins, Nikolajs Zotovs, Rodions Kurucs, Toms Upe, Reinis Rudzitis, Roberts Blumbergs, Niks Jansons, Bogdans Railans, Karlis Edvarts Garoza.