Other events in Baltic States

In VTB United League action on Wednesday, Latvian basketball club ''VEF Riga'' defeated Russian basketball club Saratov ''Avtodor'' 100:82 to keep their playoff hopes alive, inform s LETA.

The highest scorer for the Latvian club was Janis Timma with 26 points, five rebounds and five assists. Meanwhile, the top scorer for ''Avtodor'' was Kiril Fesenko with 18 points and six rebounds.

Since Estonian basketball club ''Kalev/Cramo'' lost its final match of the season last night, ''VEF Riga'' needs to win its final two regular season matches to qualify for the VTB League playoffs. The next opponent will be ''Astana''.

''VEF Riga'' is currently in 9th place in the VTB League standings with 12 wins and 16 losses, while ''Kalev/Cramo'' sits in the final playoff position with 13 wins and 17 losses.

As reported, this season's VTB League is made up of 16 clubs – 10 from Russia, and one each from Kazakhstan, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, the Czech Republic and Belarus.

Each team will play each other twice – once at home and once on the road. The top eight teams after the regular season will advance to the tournament's playoffs.

Initially, 22 clubs were expected to play in the tournament, but all of the Lithuanian, Polish and Ukrainian clubs have since dropped out of the tournament.

Last season, "VEF Riga" failed to advance to the VTB League playoffs.