LSBL 21/2008 - SK Cēsis 98, TTT Rīga Juniors 49

"No one to pass to? No prob. I'll just score again."

There are two things that I've learned about Latvian women's basketball. The first is that there are only two good teams - TTT Rīga and SK Cēsis (19-2). The second is that there's a big gap between the second place team and the third place team, which are the TTT Rīga Juniors (14-8). (And isn't it strange that TTT Rīga is so good that they have a juniors team playing in the A League?) Or at least, there's a big gap between Tamera Young and the TTT Rīga Juniors as she almost singlehandedly demolished the Juniors 98-49.

The box score is here. A picture gallery from the game is here.

With a 98-49 win, you'd expect SK Cēsis to win every quarter. They did. They held the TTT Rīga Juniors - an all-Latvian team - to just seven points in the first quarter and the score was 48-19 at halftime. Believe it or not, that first quarter was the Rīga Juniors best performance, as they only lost the first quarter by nine points. All other quarters were lost by at least double digits.

This was a real butt-whipping. SK Cēsis shot 53 percent. The Juniors shot only 29 percent and lost every single key of the game. They turned the ball over 24 times, and 19 of those turnovers came from SK Cēsis steals. They sent SK Cēsis to the free throw line 30 times and SK Cēsis hit 23 of those shots.

Did any of the Juniors have good performances? Only two scored in double digits - Anna Sonka, for example, scored 17 points and only had one turnover. Līga Šurkusa only had five points but she had fifteen rebounds. The rest of the performances were forgettable. Oh well, that's why they're the TTT Rīga Juniors - every game is a learning experience.

And the Master Instructor was Tamera Young, who showed that she was ready to play some ball.

36 points on 13-for-24 shooting.
6-for-8 at the free throw line.
13 friggin rebounds for a double-double.
Six steals.

Of course, there were other players earning a paycheck from SK Cēsis. Ieva Tāre had 16 points and eight rebounds. Rima Maregeviciute also had a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Former Dream player and now Mystic Kristen Mann did not play.