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The IVth Tournament in Kėdainiai.The absolute domination of the Kaunas team, Russians with strong ambitions and the downfall of the Ukrainians to the bottom of the tour match standing.

On March 21, the IVth International Amateur Basketball League (IABL) as the last but one tournament took place in Kėdainiai, with Vilnius team as a formal host. There were six games played during the tournament with the revealed favorites and outsiders.In any case this year the strength of teams has been very similar and all main fights are still ahead.

VKL national team made on the basis of “Tegra“ and KKL national team made on the basis of “Sport Obsession“ were the starters.There was a tough fight during the first half , where neither of the teams wished to give up the rival. After two halfs the result was equal 42:42. However, in the third half a team from Kaunas with higher gear turned on, moved away from rivals and finally overwhelmed them in the fourth half with a result 91:73.

Karolis Pupinis scored 22 points for the winners and and recaptured 16 rebounds, Dainius Novickas scored 20 points for the losing team.

For the second match a team from Russia challenged seriously representatives from Latvia, the leaders of the tour match standing. During the first two halfs , Russians proved to be excellent players and were in front, although Latvians pulled themselves and gained the advantage of the result. However, Russians coped with such difficulties and in the fourth half have broken the rivals completely with a result 88:81.

Sergej Cises scored 22 points for the Russian team, Rolands Brencs scored 18 points for the Latvian team.

The national teams of Belarus and Ukraine had a fight in the third match. Since the very start of the game, players from Belarus have played faster and more accurate and little by little gained more significant advantage and won a match with a convincing result 82:68.
Dmitrij Tumasik scored 19 points for the winners , Denis Vrublevskyj scored 18 points, Roman Dmitrenko scored 14 points for the losing team.

Latvian and Kaunas national teams were the fourth on the basketball field. It was a fight between two leaders of the tour match standing. Players from Kaunas team had a difficult fight against athletic rivals, though Kaunas team, as it has already become normal with own practised style, saved more power in the third match and they broke the flow of the game in favour of own team and after a tough fight ran away from the rivals with a result 87:80.

The first „violin“ was played by Deividas Pogužinskas with 23 points, and Karolis Pupinis 19 points and 12 recaptured rebounds, whereas for Latvians - Oskars Rusmanis scored 25 points, Rolands Brencs 20 points.

Russia and Ukraine had a fight in the last but one match of the tournament. The appearance of the names of the mentioned countries on the scoreboard has been evaluated politically by the majority of the audience gathered in the hall, due to present events in the Ukraine, but on the basketball field this war had only sports aspect, where neither of the teams had any wish to give up and fought for each centimetre of the field , followed by blood and injuries. In the beginning the Ukrainans were more successful and gained a stable advantage till the fourth half, but everything has gone upside down in the last half , so Russians with more power saved won against the national team of the Ukraine with the result 79:74.

For the Russian team Nikolaj Šangičev scored 19 points and recptured 15 rebounds, Sergej Cises 18 points. Sergej Myrzak scored 17 points for the Ukrainians.

So, the tournament was finalized with a confrontation between national teams from Vilnius and Belarus. The match was changeable, the teams have often interchanged their roles , but in the fourth half Vilnius team has proved their present strength against the rivals and won with the result 95:78.

Vaidas Bendikas scored 24 points for the Vilnius team, both Denis Vrublevskyj ir Maksim Radčuk scored 17 points for the Belarus team.

After the IVth tournament was over, the Kaunas team was quite comfortable at the top of the standing, outmatching their rivals by two victories. Three teams follow the leaders by sharing 2-4th positions. That is the Russian team, a little unexpectedly reached such a high position, with a rising perspective with each ongoing tournament, further follow Vilnius and Belarus national teams.

The Belarus national team takes the fifth position, whereas an absolute winner of all previous IABL tournamnents the Ukrainian team takes the bottom position of the standing. The following fact proves once again how unpredictable is IABL tournament for this year and we are looking forward to an interesting outcome at the finals in Slovenia.

During the closing party in “Grėjaus namai“, traditional awards ceremony took place, where the MVP ( most valuable player) was chosen by each team leader or any other valuable player and presented them with trophies to Remember.

Vaidas Bendikas was awarded by VKL national team, made on the basis of „Tegra“ team , Deividas Pogužinskas was awarded by Kaunas national team, made on the basis of „Sport Obsession“, the Latvian national team awarded Oskars Rusmanis, the Belarus national team - Dmitrij Tumašik, the Russian national team – Andrej Mahlin, whereas the Ukrainians actions were rather original solution as a team doctor has been awarded..A representative from Kaunas Karolis Pupinis was awarded as an absolute MVP of the overall tournament.

The following tournament as the last one takes place on May 9 in Riga ( Latvia), where the teams will finally clarify the standing positions and find out about their rivals at the shoot-off.

So , see you soon in Riga!