Starting today, Tallinn hosts the "4 Nations Cup" in Saku Suurhall.
Besides the hosts, the national teams from Czech Republic and Georgia will take part as well as the East Coast All Stars from United States that includes players from NCAA I division teams.
The most famous names from the NT of Georgia are Tornike Shengelia (207-F-91) from Brooklyn Nets as well as former NBA draftee Viktor Sanikidze (203-F-86) and another top level players Nika Metreveli (212-C/F-91, agency: Interperformances), Giorgi Shermadini (216-C-89) and Manuchar Markoishvili (195-G-86). Shengelia will make his NBA debut next season, Sanikidze joins Euroleague powerhouse Siena Montepaschi Siena, Markoishvili plays for Bennet Cantu, Shermadini joins Maccabi Tel Aviv and Metreveli reached SerieA semifinals this spring, playing for Sassari. The team also includes two Americans - Jacob Pullen and Corey Fisher.
The Czechs will play without their biggest name Jan Vesely and another NBA draftee Tomas Satoransky, but even without them the team is full of famous names, starting with veterans Jiri Welsch (201-F-80), Lubos Barton (202-F/G-80, college: Valparaiso) and Petr Benda (203-F/C-82, agency: Court Side) plus young talents Ondrej Balvin (216-C-92), Tomas Hampl (215-C-88), David Jelinek (196-G-90) and Jakub Kudlacek (193-G-90). Welsch who played 247 games in the NBA, will make his NT come-back after missing out the EuroBasket 2011 campaign. He plays for Charleroi. Another veteran Barton played for ACB teams Fuenlabrada and Badalona last seaon. Both Welsch and Barton represented their country in EuroBasket 1999, already! The brightest players of Czechs new generation - Balvin, Hampl, Jelinek and Kudlacek play either in ACB, SerieA or Euroleague teams.
East Coast All Stars include former U17 world champion Quinn Cook (182-G-93) from Duke, Nick Faust (198-G-93) from Maryland, Brad Redford (182-G-90) from Xavier and Zach McCabe (200-F-91) from Iowa as the most interesting names. Cook averaged 4.4 pts and 1.9 ast last season, Faust averaged 8.9 pts and 4.0 rbs as a freshman for Maryland, Redford reached NCAA Sweet 16 twice with Xavier and McCabe averaged 7.4 pts and 4.6 rbs for Iowa last season.
BC Kalev/Cramo became the Estonian champion for the third year in a row beating TU/Rock 81:69 and clinching the series 4:0. For the third consecutive year the series ended with a 4:0 sweep. Kalev/Cramo is the first team since 1990 to win three back-to-back championships.
Tanel Sokk (182-G-85), who made the most important shot of the series in the last second of Game 2, was voted the MVP of the Finals. He averaged 11 [read more]
BC Kalev/Cramo became the Estonian champion for the third year in a row beating TU/Rock 81:69 and clinching the series 4:0. For the third consecutive year the series ended with a 4:0 sweep. Kalev/Cramo is the first team since 1990 to win three back-to-back championships. Tanel Sokk (182-G-85), who made the most important shot of the series in the last second of Game 2, was voted the MVP of the Finals. He averaged 11.3 pts in finals.
Kalev/Cramo made 77% of the shots in 1st quarter to go ahead 27:16. They won the first half 47:32. TU/Rock outscored the opponents 9:4 in first six minutes of the 3rd quarter to make it minus 10 but with a quarter to play it was 59:44. Brave performance by Rain Veideman kept the hopes of home crowd alive but three-pointers by Keith McLeod and Ty Abbott secured the victory to the guests.
Abbott led the winners in the last game with 16 points. Frank Elegar added 15+12, Armands Skele 13 and Gary Wilkinson 11+6. Veideman had 19 and Justin Ingram 14 points in losing effort.
The Estonian champions are: Tanel Sokk (4th Estonian champ.), Gert Dorbek (4th Estonian champ.), Rait Keerles (6th Estonian champ.), Indrek Kajupank (2nd Est. champ.), Toomas Raadik, Kristo Mangelsoo, Keith McLeod, Armands Skele (3rd Estonian champ., also Polish and Latvian champion), Bamba Fall (2nd Est.champion), Ty Abbott, Frank Elegar and Gary Wilkinson (also 2x Australian champion).
BC Rakvere Tarvas ousted TYCO Rapla 75:57 in the decisive bronze-medal game and finished the season in top three for the second consecutive year. Brandis Raley-Ross (188-G-87, college: S.Carolina) was unstoppable with 26 points and 7 rbs, Reimo Tamm (185-PG-84) added 22 points and Kaido Saks (205-F-86) had his first double-double of the season with 10+10rb. Very experienced (19th season in KML) Andre Parn(202-F-77) was the only one with double numbers on the losing side, scoring 11 points [read more]
BC Rakvere Tarvas ousted TYCO Rapla 75:57 in the decisive bronze-medal game and finished the season in top three for the second consecutive year. Brandis Raley-Ross (188-G-87, college: S.Carolina) was unstoppable with 26 points and 7 rbs, Reimo Tamm (185-PG-84) added 22 points and Kaido Saks (205-F-86) had his first double-double of the season with 10+10rb. Very experienced (19th season in KML) Andre Parn (202-F-77) was the only one with double numbers on the losing side, scoring 11 points. Rapla made only 31% fg and 9/20 FT but they still had their chances with only the last quarter to play. Than, Tarvas outsscored the guests 24:11 and secured the best possible result behind two big teams.
With less than 3 seconds to play, Tanel Sokk(182-G-85) ran from under the basket to the middle court and, despite being guarded by three opposing players, made the game-winning shot, possibly the biggest shot of his career. BC Kalev/Cramo won the 2nd game of the KML finals 72:71 and lead the series against archrival TU/Rock 2:0.
With 2.8 seconds to play, the best player of TU/Rock, today, Rain Veideman (193-G-91) made 1/2 from the free throw line [read more]
With less than 3 seconds to play, Tanel Sokk (182-G-85) ran from under the basket to the middle court and, despite being guarded by three opposing players, made the game-winning shot, possibly the biggest shot of his career. BC Kalev/Cramo won the 2nd game of the KML finals 72:71 and lead the series against archrival TU/Rock 2:0. With 2.8 seconds to play, the best player of TU/Rock, today, Rain Veideman (193-G-91) made 1/2 from the free throw line. He missed first and, somewhat surprisingly made the second shot to make it 69:71. Bamba Fall (217-C-86, college: SMU) gave the ball to Sokk, who bounced the ball three times on the way to a middle line and moments later his whole ran to the court and the crowd went crazy. TU/Rock were incredibly close to the victory and the breaking of Kalev/Cramo's 12-game winning series against them in KML finals. With 8 seconds left, Justin Ingram (188-PG-85, agency: Two Points, college: Toledo) took them ahead 69:70 and the hosts lost the ball after time-out and had to foul.
Sokk made 10 of his 19 points in last five minutes and led his team in scoring. Gary Wilkinson (205-F/C-82, college: Utah St.) added 16 points but his turnover with 8 seconds left could have been costly. Bamba Fall had a double-double with 12+12 rbs and 4 blocks. Armands Skele (192-G-83) had 12+8rbs. Rain Veideman led his team with 21 points but was 1/3 from charity line. Justin Ingram added 17+5rbs+5as and Joosep Toome (208-C-85) 16+14 rbs.
The video of the winning shot, by Delfi TV: http://tv.delfi.ee/video/zFRsQiWM/
The first game of the finals ended 83:69. Kalev/Cramo led for the most of the game by double-digit margin but Rock came within 5 points with less than 5 minutes left to play. But Bamba Fall had the final word - he had 9 points and 3 offensive rbs in last five minutes to take his team to firm victory. Fall had 18+6rb in the game and was fouled 13 times - the all-time record of KML finals. Armands Skele led his team with 19+7. Justin Ingram hadd 26 points in losing effort.
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