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The winner of Vilnius IABL tour and Mayor A. Zuokas cup is VILNIUS BASKETBALL LEAGUE team!

The second IABL tour took place on Saturday, December 15th, in Vilnius “Lietuvos Rytas” arena. Teams from five countries (Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus and Poland) competed for points in the regular season and for the main prize – Vilnius mayor A. Zuokas cup.

The first IABL tour was a month ago in Sopot, Poland. In this tour VKL (Vilnius basketball League) team has proven that Lithuania is a basketball country. They won two games and were ranked in the first place after the tour. In the second tour the hosts have organized the biggest international celebration of amateur basketball in Vilnius.
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Poland (Sopot) – Ukraine (Kyiv) 71:52

Team from Sopot fought strong against Ukraine only for two quarters. Poland came to this tour with no wons and Ukraine had two wins. Ukrainians defeated Poland 71:52. In the first half Ukraine had a double digit lead against the opponents from Poland and even then they fought strong, but that did not help Poland to lower the score. Top scorers:

Ukraine: Sergej Myrzak 16, Aleksandr Ryjhluk 15, Anton Chernogor 11.
Poland: Jakub Kietliński 16(2x3), Michail Kaliński 12 (10 reb), Marcin Skrzypczak and Bartosz Dzierżyński 5(1x3).
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KKL (Kaunas, Lithuania) – Latvia (Riga) 91:79

In the second game KKL team from Kaunas, Lithuania, played against Latvia. This game was similar to the first one. KKL easily won against the neighbors from Riga, 91:79. KKL started attacking opponents’ basket from the first minutes of the game. Shortly they had 18 point lead and kept it to the end of the game. Top scorers:

KKL (Lithuania): Marius Šumlinskas 16, Karolis Meiliūnas 14, Aidas Makūnas 12.
Latvia: Andis Cirulis 25, Raimonds Elbakjans 21, Aigars Indrikovs and Roberts Reihmanis 7.
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VKL (Vilnius, Lithuania) – Poland (Sopot) 106:74

This was already the second game for Poland that day. They had to face VKL (Vilnius, Lithuania) amateur team. Hosts scored 106 points. During the first quarter Poland played aggressively, but that did not last long and did not take long for VKL team to take advantage of the game. After the second quarter Lithuanians already had 27 point lead. The final score was 106:74.

After the game, VKL team coach Gaudentas Puskorius, said: “We started the game badly. The men were strained, that is why they missed easy shots and let Poland control the game. Later on in the game the players relaxed and everything started to go better. We paced up the game but in the third quarter slowed down, when we saw that our other opponent (Belarus team) walked into the gym. We wanted for them to think that we are a weaker team. I hope that the team will play well in the next game and we won’t ruin the celebration in Vilnius.”

Top scorers:
Poland: Bartosz Dzierżyński 20(2x3) (5 ass.), Jakub Kietliński 14(3x3), Kamil Kruszyński 13, Michał Kaliński 12 (11 reb).
VKL (Lithuania): Darius Dudėnas 21 (15 reb), Modestas Gilys and Deividas Kumelis 20, Martynas Jokubauskas 14 (20 reb.).
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Belarus (Minsk) – Latvia (Riga) 65:70

In the fourth game of the day Belarus played Latvia. It was the second game for Latvia that day. After the lost in the first game against KKL, Latvia played more aggresively and after a tough battle won against Belarus team 70:65. After the third quarter Latvia was down by 6 points (49:55). They impresively played the last quarter (21:10) and got the biggest win in their teams‘ history.

Top scorers:
Belarus: Vitalij Konoplickij 12, Dmitrij Dmitruk (11 reb.) and Dmitrij Tumašik 10 (9 reb.)
Latvia: Raimonds Elbakjans 24, Andis Cirulis 13 (9 reb), Karlis Valenieks 8.
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KKL (Kaunas, Lithuania) – Ukraine (Kyiv) 77:84

In the fifth game of the day KKL (Kaunas, Lithuania) had to face the opponents from Ukraine. Both teams had one win in this tour from the earlier games that day. After a rough contest KKL won the game 84:77, and had two wins in this Vilnius tour. The game was full of ambitions and anger from both teams because they both wanted to win. But after all, Kaunas was the winner, when beat last years’ champions from Ukraine The fans had a great chance to enjoy this intense game, to see the dancers and to compete in various games during the time-outs.

KKL team director Esmiraldas Sliezauskas said: „I think the concentration let us win tonight. Maybe this was the first time when we had a serious coach, who told everyone what to do. He used players‘ good sides for the game, because all the players are strong individually, but if we wanted to win, we needed to be as one. We had a great amount of players on the bench, so we were not tired after the first game against Latvia. We even did not register one of our players‘, he supported us as a fan. We really wanted to beat last years‘ champions and we archieved our goal. Of course, the opponent was good, played their game, but we were prepared for that. We analized their weaknesses and that helped us win.

Top scorers:
Kaunas: Karolis Meiliūnas 15, Arvydas Geiša 14 (13 reb), Marius Šumlinskas 10.
Ukraina: Aleksandr Razev 19, Anton Cernogor 15, Aleksandr Ryjhljuk 14 (7 reb).
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VKL (Vilnius, Lithuania) – Belarus (Minsk) 108:91.

The main game of this IABL tour was between VKL and Belarus. The main purpose for Lithuanian team was to get a win and to be undefeated in the regular season, whereas Belarus wanted to win and compensate the lost against Latvia. VKL won and made everyone happy at “Lietuvos Rytas” arena. Modestas Gilys was the leader of the team with 29 scored points VKL finished the second IABL tour with 4 wins and no losses.

Top scorers:
VKL: Modestas Gilys 29, Vilius Urniezius 16 (7 ass), Henrikas Sliogeris, Linas Valatkevicius and Darius Dudenas 11, Dainius Novickas 10 (10 ass).
Belarus: Dmitri Dmitruk 22 (6 reb), Dmitri Tumashik 17 (8 reb), Maxim Radchuk 15.

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After the last game the celebration in Vilnius was not over. The organizers had a suprise for everyone. After the long day in the basketball gym, all the participants were invited to the oficial celebration. They had an opportunity to see Vilnius from the 19th floor, Vilnius television tower, and to hear the welcome speech from Vilnius City Mayor Artūras Zuokas 200 metres above the sea level. The participants were enjoying tasty dinner, great company and good music. And finally everyone was invited to the award ceremony.

Best team players were chosen not only by the organizers but by all the team coaches.

Best team players:
VKL (Vilnius) - Modestas Gilys,
KKL (Kaunas) - Aidas Makunas,
ML (Kiev) - Sergei Kolomiets,
NBL (Minsk) - Sergei Borovski,
LBAL (Riga) - Andis Cirulis,
LŚ (Sopot) - Jakub Kietliński.
Top five:
Aidas Makunas (Kaunas, KKL); Anton Chernogor (Kiev, ML); Dmitri Dmitruk (Minsk, NBL); Raimonds Elbakjans (Riga, LBAL); Dmitri Tumashik (Minsk, NBL).
MVP:

Modestas Gilys – (Vilnius, VKL).