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.

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 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 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.

BWBL 13/2008 - SK Cēsis 92, Viktoria 52

SK Cēsis (11-2) is already assured of making the BWBL playoffs. They're just finishing up their schedule in Belarus right now, and they had no trouble with Belorussian team Viktoria (2-12) with an easy 92-52 win.

The box score is here.

The quarter-by-quarter score makes it obvious - SK Cēsis crushed Viktoria in the first half, holding home team Viktoria to ten points in each of the first and second quarters. SK Cēsis led by 53-20 at halftime, and in the second half, they didn't have to try as hard.

Viktoria hit 35 percent of its attempted field goals, compared to 52 percent for SK Cēsis. SK Cēsis absolutely destroyed Viktoria in rebounding by a factor of 50-30, earning 16 offensive rebounds to Viktoria's three. It helped, because Viktoria got 11 steals and SK Cēsis turned the ball over 22 times. SK Cēsis earned 19 trips to the free throw line and hit 15 shots.

Viktoria

Nadzeya Bohdan: 12 points, 6 rebounds.
Aliaksandra Zybrytskaya: 10 points, 3 rebounds.

SK Cēsis

Tamera Young: 23 points, 9 rebounds. I was wrong in my earlier post, she didn't have any turnovers.
Rima Margevičiute: 12 points
Santa Dreimane: 12 points
Kristen Mann: 9 points and 5 rebounds in 20 minutes of play.

Hopefully, pictures soon.

P. S.: Updated now that the box score is working.

BWBL 12/2008 - SK Cēsis 78, Tallinna Living 51

Tamera Young has had a heavy load to bear in Estonia.

SK Cēsis (10-2) played its 12th BWBL game, the second game of a back-to-back game tour in lovely Estonia. Tallinna Living (3-11) would become the whipping girls after the SK Cēsis loss yesterday to BC Star - TLU. It would be Tallinna Living's misfortune to take the 78-51 loss as a gift from their Latvian visitors.

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

SK Cēsis led after the first quarter 26-14, but then fell apart in the second quarter. They scored only four points in the second quarter, but hung on to 30-29 lead at halftime. After some halftime...uh...encouragement...SK Cēsis held Tallinna Living to just nine points in the third quarter and outscored them 26-13 in the final quarter.

SK Cēsis hit 41 percent of their field goal attempts compared to 37 percent for Tallinna Living. Both teams had similar rebound numbers, but SK Cēsis led Tallinna Living 11-7 in offensive rebounds. Tallinna Living turned the ball over 25 times in the game, which must have been the difference. Furthermore, SK Cēsis was sent to the line 20 times compared to just three for Tallinna Living.

Tallinna Living

Kerli Haas: 12 points, 4 rebounds.
Anastassia Ptitsona: 11 points, 4 rebounds.
Katrin Olmari: 6 points, 4 rebounds...9 turnovers.

SK Cēsis

Kristen Mann: 20 points, 9 rebounds, and 3 assist for the ex-Atlanta Dream player now with the Indiana Fever.
Ieva Tare: 12 points, 8 rebounds.
Tamera Young: 4 points. 1-for-6 shooting in only 15 minutes of play.

BWBL 11/2008 - BC Star - TLU 66, SK Cēsis 62

How come the Dream can't have cool banners like that?

Somehow, we've come up to 12 games in the Baltic Women's Basketball League for SK Cēsis. I can't get an accurate count, it seems. I know that one of the game between SK Cēsis and a Ukranian team was cancelled, so that should make this game #10. But if you go to the SK Cēsis website, it's implied that this is game #11.

As it turns out, SK Cēsis had been scheduled to play an Ukrainian team, TIM-SCUF, sometime in the past. That team failed to show up and the Baltic League finally awarded SK Cēsis a forfeit victory.

Maybe SK Cēsis should have skipped this game. Going on the road again - this time to Estonia - they are upset on the road, 66-62 yesterday in Baltic League play.

The box score is here. You just have to click on the "View match statistics" link. A gallery of images from the game is here.

SK Cēsis jumped out to a strong 20-8 lead against the home team, and took a 40-23 lead into halftime. Even after three quarters of play, SK Cēsis still led 55-42. But in the fourth quarter, it fell apart. SK Cēsis only scored seven points in the fourth quarter and BC Star - TLU scored 24 to steal the victory at home from SK Cēsis.

The club president of SK Cēsis blames the fact that they have an injured center. If so, how come they were able to hold BC Star - TLU at arm's length for three quarters without her?

Both teams were equals in field goal accuracy (BC Star - TLU 42 percent, SK Cēsis 43 percent). It was in rebounding that SK Cēsis fell shot, outrebounded 37-28 and only finding three offensive rebounds. Maybe SK Cēsis's president is right. Both teams were relatively even when it came to turnovers and free throw shooting, so it was rebounding that would make the difference.

BC Star - TLU

Davineia Payne: 26 points and 13 rebounds for the BWBL's leading scorer. Graduated from LaSalle in 2006.
Ashley Wallace: 20 points, 6 rebounds. Graduate from Division II Pace University.
Janna Rannaveski: 9 points, 7 rebounds.

SK Cēsis

Kristen Mann: 16 points, 8 rebounds for the ex-Atlanta player who now plays for Indiana.
Ieva Tare: 14 points, 5 rebounds
Santa Dremaine: 13 points, 4 rebounds
Tamera Young: An awful game: 4 points and 4 rebounds in 21 minutes played. 2-for-8 shooting.

P. S.: If you're inclined to look at the gallery pictures, prove to me that there were more than a dozen people in attendance outside the players and the staff.

Tamera, Your Game Has Been Cancelled

It looks like the game between SK Cēsis and the Ukrainian team Kozachka has been cancelled by the Ukranians. From what I can figure out from the SK Cēsis website is that Kozachka is doing so well in the Baltic League that they figure if they win their next two games, they'll go to the tournament anyway - therefore, they save money by not playing and tanking this game.

SK Cēsis and the Baltic League are left scratching their heads.

Pictures from the SK Cēsis-Lemminkainen Game - February 22, 2009

A gallery of pictures from the SK Cēsis-Lemminkainen game has been posted at the SK Cēsis website.

The above is the only Tamera Young picture. But that doesn't give you an excuse not to visit.

BWBL 8/2008 - SK Cesīs 76, Lemminkainen 67

Lemminkainen (7-4) is a Lithuanian team, by the way. From what I understand - or from what I think I understand as Translate Google convolutes the text from Latvian into English - SK Cesīs (7-1) takes these games as seriously as the Baltic Women's League seems to. That is, SK Cesīs sees these games as good warmups for their Latvian league play. Given that, Lemminkainen is a tough Lithuanian team and SK Cesīs was happy to get the win on the road, winning 76-67.

The box score is here. (To access it, click on "View match statistics".)

It was certainly a closely contested game. Lemminkainen led 21-20 after the first quarter, but SK Cesīs pulled into a 41-36 lead at halftime. By the third quarter, Lemminkainen caught up again and the score was tied 56-56. SK Cesīs was able to hold the home team to 11 points in the final quarter and walked away with a nine-point victory.

SK Cesīs led in shooting percentage, 43 percent to 41 percent. However, Lemminkainen only attempted 49 shots compared to SK Cesīs's 68 attempts. Both teams rebounded evenly, with SK Cesīs holding a 10-7 edge in offensive rebounds. Lemminkainen turned the ball over 21 times during the game. However, the Lithuanian team hit 15 out of 20 of its free throws.

Lemminkainen

Aušra Naidėnienė: 16 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists.
Alesia Puško: 15 points, 5 rebounds.
Eglė Žygelytė: Only 4 points, and 9 turnovers.

SK Cesīs

Kristen Mann: 19 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 steals for the ex-Atlanta Dream player.
Tamera Young: 12 points and 4 assists. THey only needed her to play for 25 minutes.
Elina Babkina: 12 points, 3 rebounds.