BWBL Finals 2008 - Vilnius 68, SK Cēsis 47

Tamera, we hoped you liked Latvia. We'll see you in Atlanta!

Vilnius had been the champion of the BWBL for the previous nine years, so I'm sure they weren't intimidated by the arrival of SK Cēsis. They had beaten Cēsis in the BWBL Finals in the previous year. Vilnius started strong and finished strong, winning the Baltic Women's Basketball League championship 68-47.

The box score is here. Click "View match statistics" to see the box score. A gallery of images can be seen here.

It didn't take long for Vilnius to take an eight-point lead, 17-9 in the middle of the first quarter and ending the first 10 minutes with 26 points. Vilnius had an 11 points lead and they kept that lead going into halftime 39-28. In the second half, SK Cēsis had a hard time hitting anything, and when you're down 11 points, that's disaster. SK Cēsis only scored seven points in the final quarter and Vilnius would cruise to its tenth straight BWBL title with a 21-point victory.

Vilnius hit 45 percent of their field goal attempts in the game, whereas SK Cēsis only hit 37 percent. With Aušra Bimbaitė and Crystal Langhorne of Vilnius gobbling up rebounds, Vilnius outrebounded SK Cēsis 31-21. SK Cēsis only turned the ball over nine times, but Vilnius kept turnovers down to 12 and SK Cēsis had no way to get the ball back after their misses.

With the loss, SK Cēsis has no more games to play until September. Tamera Young can go home with a championship under her belt. She almost had two championships, but it was not to be.

SK Cēsis

Sandra Dijon: 13 points, 7 rebounds.
Ieva Tare: 9 points.
Tamera Young: 8 points, 7 rebounds. Fouled out.
Kristen Mann: 2 points in 27 minutes of play. Mann and Young must have been smothered.

Vilnius

Crystal Langhorne: 28 points, 9 rebounds from the Washington Mystics center.
Jurgita Štreimikytė-Virbickienė: 14 points from the ex-WNBA player. Štreimikytė-Virbickienė last played with the Indiana Fever in 2005.
Aušra Bimbaitė: 5 points, 17 rebounds. Bimbaitė was the rebound leader in the game.

BWBL Semifinals 2008 - SK Cēsis 49, Arvi (Lithuania) 43

Tamera Young helps SK Cēsis out of a hole.

The semifinals and finals of the Baltic Women's Basketball League are definitely tough. Four teams go into the semifinals and the games are strictly single-elimination. While TTT Rīga lost to Vilnius 77-55, SK Cēsis managed to make it to the finals of the BWBL for the second year in a row with a 49-43 victory.

The box score is here. Click "View match statistics" to see the box score. A gallery of images can be found here.

The best way to describe that first game was awful. Neither team broke the double digit barrier in the first quarter, and both teams were tied 9-9 after 10 minutes. SK Cēsis only managed six points in the second quarter with Arvi scoring the first six points of the second quarter, and SK Cēsis went into halftime down 21-15. Tamera Young began to feed the ball in the third quarter, finding enough SK Cēsis players to take SK Cēsis up to a 33-31 lead at the end of three quarter. A tense fourth quarter reulted in Arvi catching up, down just 41-39 with four minutes left, but SK Cēsis held off the Lithuanians long enough for the Semifinal victory.

I can only assume that both teams would have been happier just kicking the ball around the gym. SK Cēsis only hit 30 percent of their field goal attempts...but Arvi topped that with 26 percent. Arvi was a slightly better rebounding team, with the majority of rebounds for both teams being offensive rebounds. Turnovers were virtually identical, but with both teams shooting so poorly, free throw shooting turned out to be the key of the game. SK Cēsis hit six more free throws than Arvi, and that margin was reflected in the final score.

SK Cēsis

Kristen Mann: 22 points, 9 rebounds.
Tamera Young: 12 points, 7 rebounds, 4 steals, 4 turnovers.
Ieva Tare: 5 points, all from free throws.

Arvi

Milda Sauliūtė: 10 points, 4 rebounds.
Laima Rickevičiūtė: 6 points, 8 rebounds.
Lizanne Murphy: 2 points and 3 rebounds for the Canadian player.

LSBL Finals 3/2008 - SK Cēsis 88, TTT Rīga 57

You should see what the coach was drinking!

This Thursday, the potential deciding game of the Latvian League's Finals were being played on the same day that new player were being drafted in the WNBA. There was a danger of the finals being overshadowed, and with SK Cēsis holding a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series, that danger was all the more. SK Cēsis would make short work of TTT Rīga on its own home court, winning 88-57 to sweep the Latvian finals and become the new Latvia Women's League Champions!

The box score is here. With the Latvian championship decided, the only thing left for SK Cēsis this season is to take the Baltic Women's Basketball League championship.

There are two galleries: a game gallery and a championship gallery.

Good rebounding got SK Cēsis off to a 7-0 start. TTT Rīga fought back to take a 12-10 lead of their own but SK Cēsis raced out ahead to take a 25-16 lead at the end of the first quarter. The second quarter was horrible for TTT Rīga as they were held to nine points and by halftime, the visitors led 47:25 in front of a crowd of disappointed TTT Rīga fans. In the second half, the Latvian press reported that TTT Rīga came back onto the court a defeated team, going though the motions as SK Cēsis won each of the remaining quarters.

SK Cēsis hit 53 percent of their attempted field goals - and TTT Rīga only hit 34 percent of theirs. That was the game right there. TTT Rīga was outrebounded 42-31 but had more offensive rebounds than their opponents. TTT Rīga would turn the ball over only nine times...but SK Cēsis only had five turnovers. SK Cēsis went to the free throw line 25 times, hitting 20 shots.

TTT Rīga

Aija Brumermane: 10 points, 17 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals.
Zane Eglīte: 7 points, 7 rebounds
Merike Anderson: 20 points on 8-for-20 shooting. 5 turnovers, 4 personal fouls.

SK Cēsis

Kristen Mann: 20 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists. 8-for-13 shooting, an amazing game.
Kelly da Silva Santos: 12 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists.
Tamera Young: 14 points, 9 rebounds in just 18 minutes played.

SK Cēsis-TTT Rīga Gallery - Game Two, LSBL Finals

Tamera Young stops to admire the hair of an opposing player.

The gallery from Game Two of the Latvian finals can be found here. There are some good Tamera Young pics here, so dig in...if SK Cēsis wins Game Three there might not be many more galleries!

LSBL Finals 2/2008 - SK Cēsis 60, TTT Rīga 51

I was wrong about the LSBL Finals - it's not a best of seven series, it's a best of five series. SK Cēsis had already taken a 1-0 lead on TTT Rīga's court and the game was to come back home to SK Cēsis. SK Cēsis continued to press the advantage, winning Game Two 60-51 in front of 1200 fans and taking a 2-0 lead in a best of three series. If SK Cēsis wins Game 3 on Thursday at Riga, they are the LSBL Champions.

The box score is here.

By the end of the first two minutes, SK Cēsis had a 7-0 lead in the game, and they kept that lead, leading 20-13 after one quarter, and by halftime, SK Cēsis had expanded the lead to 35-25. Both teams played more or less evenly throughout the second half, with TTT Rīga never able to decisively cut into SK Cēsis's lead.

Each time hit only 34 percent of its attempted field goals, but the big difference in the game was that SK Cēsis hit 8-of-24 of its 3-point field goals whereas TTT Rīga went 1-for-18. SK Cēsis out-rebounded their counterparts 38-27. Undoubtedly, the missed 3-pointers gave SK Cēsis plenty of rebounding opportunities.

SK Cēsis

Kristen Mann: 27 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists. A very nice game for the ex-Dream player.
Tamera Young: 8 points and 12 rebounds. Young went 4-for-9 and was just one basket away from the game's second double-double.
Elina Babkina: 15 points.

TTT Rīga

Aija Brumermane: 16 points, 8 rebounds. Fouled out.
Merike Anderson: 13 points, 4 rebounds, 4 personal fouls.

Pictures will come when the SK Cēsis website posts them.

LSBL Finals 1/2008 - SK Cēsis 91, TTT Rīga 56

Tamera Young gives some thanx to the Almighty.

My understanding is that the Latvia Women's Basketball finals are a best-of-seven series. TTT Rīga has home field advantage in the finals, but things definitely didn't go TTT Rīga's way in a decisive defeat that took away the advantage that TTT Rīga earned by winning the regular season.

The box score is here. A gallery of game pictures is here.

SK Cēsis got off to a good start, but not an overwhelming one - they led 22-16 after the first quarter and the lead was exactly the same, 40-34 at halftime. It is implied - but I can't prove it - that SK Cēsis went on a 22-0 run in the third quarter! Whether that's true or not isn't that important - SK Cēsis held TTT Rīga to just 10 third-quarter points and led 66-44 after three quarters. TTT Rīga rolled over and died, scoring only 12 points in the fourth quarter compared to 25 for SK Cēsis. Santa Dremaine suffered an injury in the first quarter for SK Cēsis but with the big win a lot of SK Cēsis players got minutes.

TTT Rīga only hit 33 percent of their field goal attempts compared to 53 percent shooting from SK Cēsis. SK Cēsis out-rebounded TTT Rīga by a factor of 39-24, and TTT Rīga turned the ball over 21 times - nothing was going right for the home team. To add insult to injury, even though SK Cēsis only hit 70 percent of their free throws, TTT Rīga was worse with just 65 percent.

Game Two will be played on Sunday.

TTT Rīga

Merike Anderson: 18 points. 11 of those points were free throws.
Dita Krūmberga: 11 points, 7 rebounds.
Diāna Ozoliņa: 10 points.

SK Cēsis

Kristen Mann: 32 points, 7 rebounds.
Tamera Young: 31 points, 9 rebounds.
Ieva Tare: 13 points, with 4 assists. 8 of those points were free throws.
Santa Dremaine: Injured. Only played 2 minutes. No points.

Pictures from SK Cesis - TEO Vilnius

Crystal Langhorne and Tamera Young play "Hot Potato".

A page of pictures from the recent SK Cesis-TEO Vilnius is here. Tamera Young gets her fair share of the pics.

BWBL Semfinals 3/2008 - TEO Vilnius (Lithuania) 71, SK Cēsis 50

In all truth, the game was meaningless. The top two teams from Pool A - TEO Vilnius and SK Cēsis - along with the top two teams from Pool B (Arvi and TTT Rīga) were guaranteed places in the Final Four regardless of the outcome of this game. However, there was a matter of pride - the year before TEO Vilnius met SK Cēsis in the BWBL championshipo, and lost. Unfortunately, the outcome was the same as the Lithuanians won 71-50.

These four teams will meet April 18-19th in a single-elimination semi-finals tournament. On the 18th, TEO Vilnius will play TTT Rīga to determine the first finalist, and Arvi will play SK Cēsis to determine the other finalist. On the 19th, the final standings will be determined - the winners of the day before fight for first place vs. second place, and the losers fight for third vs. fourth.

The box score is here. Click "View match statistics" to see the boxscore.

It was a painful game for SK Cēsis, which started slow and stayed slow. They were down 23-19 in the first quarter and lumbered to halftime down 41-23. SK Cēsis put up a slight struggle in the third quarter to close to within 13, with the score 53-40 at the end of thirty minutes. However, TEO Vilnius would hold SK Cēsis to just 10 points in the fourth quarter to secure the win.

TEO Vilnius hit 48 percent of their attempted field goals compared with 34 percent from SK Cēsis. TEO Vilnius out-rebounded SK Cēsis 41-28, and when you lead in both shooting and rebounding, that pretty much determines the game.

SK Cēsis

Kristine Karklina: 14 points, 8 rebounds.
Tamera Young: 10 points on 5-for-10 shooting.
Kristen Mann: 8 points, 4 rebounds on 4-for-14 shooting.

TEO Vilneus

Crystal Langhorne: 19 points and 10 rebounds from the center from the Washington Mystics.
Gintarė Petronytė: 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Aušra Bimbaitė: 10 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists.

I'm sure pictures will be supplied soon.

BWBL Semifinals 2/2008 - SK Cēsis 74, TIM-SCUF (Ukraine) 59

Believe it or not, this is work. SK Cēsis is watching game film.

The last time SK Cēsis "played" TIM-SCUF they won 20-0 - for some reason TIM-SCUF didn't show up and SK Cēsis was awarded a forfeit win. This time, SK Cēsis only won by 15 with a 74-59 victory in Vilnius, Lithuania. According to the SK Cēsis website, this guarantees SK Cēsis a place in the "Final Four".

The box score is here. Click "View match statistics" to see the box score. A gallery of game images is here. I thought there were some particularly nice Tamera Young pics in this collection. It also looks like they deliberately played this game in an empty gym, as there were virtually no places to sit.

SK Cēsis got off to a great start leading 25-15 after the first quarter and almost crossing the 50-point mark with a 48-30 halftime lead. TIM-SCUF managed to hold SK Cēsis to just eight third-quarter points -- but TIM-SCUF could only score 11 points of their own and didn't wage a comeback in the fourth quarter.

SK Cēsis hit 44 percent of their field goal attempts, as compared to a dismal 30 percent from TIM-SCUF. TIM-SCUF also suffered in rebounding, losing the battle 41-30. Both teams kept turnovers down - just 12 from each team - and each team had similar free throw numbers.

TIM-SCUF

Olga Maznichenko: 21 points, 5 rebounds.
Kateryna Dorogobuzova: 12 points, 3 rebounds.
Olha Krasnikova: 7 points, 4 rebounds.

SK Cēsis

Kristen Mann: 21 points, 10 rebounds. Kristen is still a force to be reckoned with in Latvia.
Tamera Young: 14 points, 7 rebounds.
Ieva Tare: 14 points, 7 rebounds.

Pics from SK Cēsīs-Berezina RCOR

Tamera Young and Kristen Mann, feeling no pain.

The gallery for the SK Cēsīs-Berezina RCOR game played in Lithuania can be found here. Bask in all of the glory of Baltic basketball.

BWBL Semifinals 1/2008 - SK Cēsis 69, Berezina-RCOR (Belarus) 46

There are about a thousand ways you can set up a post-season playoff system, and it looks like Europe has tried all of them. It looks like SK Cēsis will play all three teams in their four-team group over the weekend, but I don't know if it's the best finisher that advances to the next round, or the best two finishers. For SK Cēsis, it doesn't matter anyway as they won 69-46 in Vilnius, Lithuania in the Baltic Women's Basketball League posteason.

The box score is here. Click on "view match statistics" to see the box score. A gallery of game images can be found here.

Cēsis started out with a 17-13 lead but by halftime, Berezina-RCOR has closed the gap to 31-29 in what was described as a "laborious" first half. Tamera Young took the initiative in the third quarter, and helped SK Cēsis take a 50-38 lead by the end of three quarters. The fourth quarter was just more of the same.

SK Cēsis only shot 38 percent from the field, including a horrible 1-for-15 from 3-point rang. Berezina-RCOR didn't do much better, only hitting 37 percent of their free throw attempts. It was in every other phase of the game where SK Cēsis. SK Cēsis had 22 offensive rebounds and Berezina-RCOR would turn the ball over 24 times.

SK Cēsis will play TIM-SCUF on Saturday. TIM-SCUF is a Ukrainian team.

SK Cēsis

Kristen Mann: 22 points on 10-for-16 shooting. 13 rebounds.
Tamera Young: 12 points and 12 rebounds in the second of two SK Cēsis double-doubles.
Ieva Tare: 10 points, 8 rebounds.

Berezina-RCOR

Yuliya Dureika: 14 points, 5 rebounds.
Anzhela Duboiskaya: 11 points, 7 rebounds.
Aksana Dauharukava: 8 points, 7 rebounds, 6 turnovers.

LSBL Semifinals 2/2008 - SK Cēsis 96, TTT Rīga Juniors 60

The venue might have changed to the Rīga Juniors home court, but nothing else changed as SK Cēsis whalloped the TTT Rīga Juniors 96-60, winning the second - and decisive - game of a best-of-three semifinals.

The senior team - known as TTT Rīga - defeated Liepāja Metalurgs in the second of their three game semifinal series to knock out Liepāja Metalurgs. The semifinals are now over and SK Cēsis will meet TTT Rīga in a finals series that is scheduled to begin April 2.

The box score is here.

Under the box score it reads "Skatītāji: 56". This means that there were grand total of 56 in attendance, not counting the players. (Who knows? Maybe they did count the players.) As the old joke goes, if the TTT Rīga Junior fans stormed the court, SK Cēsis could have held them off.

Who knows, maybe all of the TTT Rīga Juniors ran out in the second quarter? With SK Cēsis leading 16-14 after the first quarter, SK Cēsis scored 35 in the second to take a 51-30 lead. The lead was extended to over 30 points by the end of the third quarter, and by that time the SK Cēsis players were talking about what they were going to eat after the game.

SK Cēsis hit 52 percent of their shots compared to a 38 percent field goal accuracy rate for the TTT Rīga Juniors. SK Cēsis out-rebounded the home team 34-27 and the TTT Rīga Juniors turned the ball over 21 times. SK Cēsis visited the free throw line 18 times and hit 17 of their shots.

Both SK Cēsis and TTT Rīga will now concentrate on the Baltic Women's Basketball League Semifinals for the rest of March.

TTT Rīga Juniors

Anete Šteinberga: 12 points and 12 rebounds for a double-double.
Anna Sonka: 9 points, 6 rebounds.
Ieva Jansone: 17 points but 6 turnovers.

SK Cēsis

Kristen Mann: 31 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists. Kristen was clearly the player of the game.
Santa Dreimane: 19 points.
Tamera Young: 2 points, but they only played her for 4 minutes. Clearly, Tamera wasn't needed anyway.

Hopefully, pictures will come soon.

Tamera Young/SK Cēsis Semifinal Pics

Isn't it great when you can kick back during a game and have fun?

A gallery for Game One of the semifinal matchup between SK Cēsis and the TTT Rīga Juniors can be found right here.

The combination of March Madness and work might slow down posting, but I can still post a pic or two.

LSBL Semifinals 1/2008 - SK Cēsis 102, TTT Rīga Juniors 74

With only eight teams in the Latvian league, the Latvians go right to the semifinals during playoff season. The first game of a best-of-three series put SK Cēsis against the TTT Rīga Juniors teams - the Juniors are the kids who will sooner or later play for TTT Rīga, which is the #1 team in Latvia. (How tough do you have to be before you let your minor league team compete in the majors?) SK Cēsis reminded the Juniors that they were the juniors with a 102-74 win.

The box score is here.

The press from Latvia all agree that the final score is misleading, and you can tell just be looking at the quarter-by-quarter score. Both teams were tied after 10 minutes, 22-22, and by halftime, SK Cēsis only led by seven points, taking a 45-38 score into the break. After three quarters SK Cēsis was able to extend the lead to 69-60, but in the fourth quarter the TTT Rīga Juniors were held to just 14 points where SK Cēsis scored 33.

SK Cēsis hit 43 percent of its shots compared to 42 percent from the TTT Rīga Juniors. However, the TTT Rīga Juniors were just 5-for-23 from 3-point range and only attempted 61 shots compared to 82 shots attempted by SK Cēsis. SK Cēsis outrebounded the Juniors 48-35 and the TTT Rīga Juniors turned the ball over 21 times. SK Cēsis was sent to the free throw line 28 times where they hit 75 percent of their shots.

SK Cēsis

Sandra Dijon: 18 points and 9 rebounds on 8-for-9 shooting.
Tamera Young: 17 points and 8 rebounds on 7-for-12 shooting. Tamera, unfortunately, fouled out after 24 minutes.
Kristen Mann: Zero points in four minutes of play.

TTT Rīga Juniors

Anete Šteinberga: 34 points and 16 rebounds. It could have been a lot worse for the TTT Rīga Juniors if she hadn't been there.
Ieva Jansone: 18 points and 6 rebounds.

Hoping to have pictures from this game soon. By the way, TTT Rīga beat Liepāja Metalurgs in the first game of their best of three series. The next game for both SK Cēsis and the TTT Rīga Juniors is on Tuesday in Rīga.

LSBL 27/2008 - SK Cēsis 110, Turība/Kolonna 39

No, this score is not a typo. So what was it? Was it the fact that Ieva Tāre recovered enough from pneumonia to play a few minutes? Is it because SK Cēsis have the strength of a hundred women because their hearts are pure? Or it because Turība/Kolonna didn't care? It doesn't really matter - Turība/Kolonna lost by seventy points in front of 500 spectators. (I hope those spectators had a deck of cards.)

The evidence of the whipping is here.

It was the final game of the regular season for SK Cēsis. The game was basically over in the first quarter when SK Cēsis took a 35-11 lead. After that, Turība/Kolonna began to mail it in. Turība/Kolonna scored seven points in the second and third quarters - the score was 81-25 at the end of three quarters.

SK Cēsis shot 54 percent from the field. Turība/Kolonna only hit 21 percent of their field goals: 7-for-28 from 2-point range and 4-for-23 from behind the 3-point line. They turned the ball over 21 times compared to SK Cēsis's eight times. It was a very ugly game at times, with Turība/Kolonna sent to the free throw line 24 times and SK Cēsis being sent 37 times (they were 28-for-37 if anyone's asking).

Odd stat: seven SK Cēsis players scored in double figures, but there were no SK Cēsis double-doubles.

SK Cēsis

Elīna Babkina: 23 points, 5 rebounds.
Rima Maregeviciute: 19 points, 8 rebounds.
Tamera Young: 13 points in 20 minutes. 5-for-8 shooting.
Kristen Mann: 4 points in 13 minutes of play.
Ieva Tāre: 7 points in 15 minutes.

Turība/Kolonna

Eva Pavlovska: 10 points and 4 rebounds. The less said about the rest of Turība/Kolonna's performance, the better.

Pictures will come if the film wasn't burned.

SK Cēsis-TTT Rīga Gallery

Tamera Young (#14) is ready to lead a hand to Santa Dreimane (#5).

The gallery of the SK Cēsis-TTT Rīga game has finally been posted.

I think the above might be the only Tamera Young pic in the group. Take a peek, these are some nice pictures.

LSBL 26/2008 - TTT Rīga 90, SK Cēsis 83

SK Cēsis (23-3) had two advantages over rival team TTT Rīga (26-1). First, they were playing at home. Second, there were 1,200 fans in attendance which set a new record for Latvian basketball. Despite the fan support, SK Cēsis fell to TTT Rīga by a score of 90-83.

The box score is here.

TTT Rīga took an 8-0 run in the first quarter to break a 6-6 tie, and TTT Rīga led 26-14 after just one quarter. SK Cēsis clawed back in the second quarter and and TTT Rīga's lead would be cut to five, 42-37 at halftime. SK Cēsis continued to attack their rivals and actually led at one time in the third quarter, 48-47, but TTT Rīga still led 59-55 after thirty minutes.

In the fourth quarter, a Kristen Mann shot put SK Cēsis in the lead again, 80-79. Unfortunately, SK Cēsis would only score four more points in the rest of the game.

The only mention of Tamera Young in the game writeup was the following:

Nothing but violate the rules, moreover Brunermane which has sodiņus metusi convincingly, discarding the two missed additives still receiving the note itself. At that moment, nerves fail Tamer Jang, who also nopūdelē both sodiņus and Riga is at balls, which both quickly and succeed in intercepting ... discard auta ...

I'm sure it means something, and probably not something good.

SK Cēsis hit 52 percent of its field goal attempts (including 7-of-11 from 3-point range), whereas TTT Rīga hit 42 percents of its shots. So what happened to SK Cēsis? First, TTT Rīga went 11-for-22 from behind the 3-point line. Second, SK Cēsis turned the ball over 23 times compared to TTT Rīga's 11 turnovers.

Third, Ieva Tare, SK Cēsis's team captain was out with pneumonia. (Hey, it's cold in Latvia.) I'm sure SK Cēsis could have used her.

SK Cēsis

Kristen Mann: 23 points and 9 rebounds for the ex-Dream player.
Santa Dreimane: 17 points, 6 rebounds.
Tamera Young: 19 points and 4 rebounds in 26 minutes of play.

TTT Rīga

Merike Anderson: 29 points and 5 rebounds.
Aija Brumermane: 10 points and 6 rebounds. 8-for-10 from the free throw line.
Zane Eglīte: 12 points and 7 rebounds.

As soon as there are pictures, I'll post them.

LSBL 25/2008 - SK Cēsis 96, RTU-Merks 44

Ainars Zvirgzdiņš gives Tamera Young some advice.

SK Cēsis (23-2) keeps up its dominance. How dominant is SK Cēsis? You can tell a team's dominance by its average margin of victory, and scores like the 96-44 win over RTU-Merks (11-15) on Tuesday are typical of how well SK Cēsis plays.

The box score is here. A gallery of game images can be found here. A gallery of game images can be found here.

As expected, SK Cēsis won every single quarter. They led 47-22 at the half and 77-30 after three quarters. It couldn't have called for much effort on SK Cēsis.

SK Cēsis hit 56 percent of its attempted field goals, whereas RTU-Merks only hit 29 percent of its attempts. SK Cēsis out-rebounded their opponents, but RTU-Merks led 10-7 in offensive rebounds. Unfortunately, RTU-Merks also turned the ball over 25 times and went to the free throw line only six times, whereas SK Cēsis hit 16 out of 28 of their free throws - a 57 percent accuracy rate, but accuracy probably wasn't needed.

RTU-Merks

Dace Krūmiņa: 23 points.
Linda Barkāne: 5 points, 6 rebounds.
Anita Eglīte: 4 points, 7 assists.

SK Cēsis

Tamera Young: 20 points, 7 rebounds in just 22 minutes of play.
Kristen Mann: 18 points, 4 assists for the ex-Dream player.
Rima Maregeviciute: 14 points, 6 rebounds.

LWBL 24/2008 - SK Cēsis 91, Liepājas Metalurgs 50

In front of a crowd of only 500 spectators on their home court, SK Cēsis (22-2) continues to roll up the opposition in the Latvia Women's Basketball League. The designated victim today was Liepājas Metalurgs (12-14) who were blown out on SK Cēsis's home court by a score of 91-50.

The box score is here.

There really isn't much to say about this game. SK Cēsis won every quarter and led 42-26 at halftime. SK Cēsis furthermore won the last quarter by sixteen points as I suspect that Liepājas Metalurgs mailed it in after the third quarter.

Liepājas Metalurgs only hit 31 percent of their field goal attempts, including 3-from-18 from behind the 3-point line in what must have been desperation shots. SK Cēsis, on the other hand, hit 53 percent of their shots. SK Cēsis out-rebounded their opponent's 44-32 and only turned the ball over 11 times. SK Cēsis would send Liepājas Metalurgs to the free throw line 23 times, but Liepājas Metalurgs would only hit 53 percent of their free throws. SK Cēsis would only hit 65 percent of their attempts, but with their other advantages this game would not be decided on the free throw line.

Amazingly, no one had a double-double in this game.

SK Cēsis

Sandra Dijon: 35 points and nine rebounds. It isn't the most points ever scored by SK Cēsis, but she shot 15-for-21 during the game.
Tamera Young: 12 points and 8 rebounds on 5-for-12 shooting.
Kristen Mann: 12 points, 4 assists and 8 rebounds on 4-for-9 shooting.

Liepājas Metalurgs

Sabīne Niedola: 20 points and 8 rebounds, but 5 turnovers.
Viktorija Nazarova: 11 points and 6 rebounds.

Hoping to have some pictures from this game. SK Cēsis is pretty good at providing pictures from Latvian league games.

BWBL 14/2008 - Olympia 78, SK Cēsis 77

It was the final game of the regular season for the Baltic Women's Basketball League. SK Cēsis (11-3) finished a long road trip to Belarus to play Olimpia (8-6) which is one of the best Belarussian teams. SK Cēsis would have finished second in the BWBL anyway, so there was nothing at stake. Even on the road, SK Cēsis came close to winning - last year, they lost 89-79 - but couldn't hold out, losing 78-77 to Olimpia.

The box score is here. To read the box score, click "View match statistics".

After a high first scoring first quarter, 30-23 in favor of Olympia, SK Cēsis closed the gap to one point, 45-44. At the end of the third quarter, SK Cēsis managed to take a 62-59 lead, but it fell apart in the fourth quarter. With two minutes left, SK Cēsis had closed to within two points, 74-72, but it would be the closest SK Cēsis got after losing the lead.

Olimpia hit 41 percent of its attempted field goals, compared to just 34 percent from the visitors. SK Cēsis, however, absolutley whipped Olimpia on the boards, out-rebounding the home team 55-39 and pulling down 19 rebounds compared to Olimpia's eight. SK Cēsis wouild also hit 18 out of 20 free throws, but it looks like those two missed free throws would have helped.

Olimpia

Natalia Anufryenko: 27 points, 7 assists and 4 rebounds.
Tatiana Likhtorovich: 17 points and 13 rebounds. There would be three double-doubles in the game and this would be only one of them.
Olga Kopylova: 14 points, 8 rebounds.

SK Cēsis

Kristen Mann: 16 points and 12 rebounds from the former Atlanta Dream player - but she shot 6-for-24.
Sandra Dijon: 11 points, 12 rebounds.
Tamera Young: 15 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists. Unfortunately, 3-for-13 shooting but she did hit 8 out of 10 free throws.