By Vytautas Kaminskas
Last few play-days in SEB BBL 1st Division changes the situation in the standings noticably. Sunday and Tuesday were little breaks for surprises, but today there were more unexpected results. Both, Sakalai and Ehitustoorist, which surprised last week by winning against Ventspils and Rytas, had another big victories.
Sakalai Vilnius continued with great victories, downing Ventspils on road 71-69. Sakalai had 6 straight losses before this weekend, but were able to beat two BBL favorites in a row. Ventspils had only 2 victories in last 5 league games and fell very close to 4-6th placed teams, which have only one loss more.
In this low-scoring game, Sakalai was lead by Rolandas Matulis (7 rebounds) and Steponas Babrauskas - 14 points each. Last game heros Eligijus Redeckas and Reinaldas Seibutis scored 12 and 10 respectively.
Ventspils was led by Brent Wright, who had an impressive double-double with 16 of each - points and rebounds. Mike Lenzly added 14, while Ivars Timermanis back from injury and Kestutis Sestokas scored 12 each.
In the other game, both estonian teams of the tournament met in Tartu and, after winning in Valmiera, Ehitustoorist was able to take its second road vitory in a row, beating champion TU/Rock by 77-70.
Rock was leading for the most of the match, but faced increadible 4th-quarter effort of Ehitustoorist, that was too much for the hosts to cope with.
Nathan Mielke made 14 and Tanel Kaljula added 12 points for the winners.
Vallo Allingu was the best in Rock with 19 poitns and 9 rebounds, Vasar scored 12, Vaskys contributed with 11 points and 7 assists.
Earlier, on Sunday, two games were played in Latvia. Champion Ventspils dealed with Neptunas Klaipeda 82-66 thanks to 20 points and 10 rebounds from lithuanian Kestutis Sestokas. Brent Wright had 18 points and 11 rebounds.
Americans Antonio Grant and Sheiku Kabba scored 17 and 14 points for Neptunas.
Ehitustoorist took their second victory in two days against latvian teams, as they stopped Valmieras Piens 83-66.
Rait Keerles and Veljo Vares led the winners with 16 points each, while Tanel Kaljula added 14.
Sandis Armolins scored 14 for the hosts.
 While yesterday, both lithuanian grand welcomed latvian teams in their arenas. In Kaunas, Zalgiris outscored Valmiera easily 113-78 under 21 points from Ainars Bagatskis. Pack played his style, scoring 20 points, 6 assists but making 8 turnovers. Beard had another double-double - 18 points and 11 rebounds, plus 3 blocked shots. Sandis Amolins scored 22 for Valmieras Piens.
Lietuvos rytas at the same time was crushing Barons Riga with great defense efforts that refelct in the final score - 107-62.
Andrius Slezas was on fire with 25 points, Simas Jasaitis scored 19 points plus 9 rebounds, while Mindaugas Lukauskas, who was put deep on the bench by previous Rytas coach Vlade Djurovic, made 16 points and impressive 10 assists for the winners. Rytas didn't use Tyrone Nesby and Tomas Delininkaitis during this match.
Reinis Strupovics had 14, Martins Kravcenko - 13 points, while Marius Janisius added 10.
16.2.2005
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