VEF Riga collected its first victory in the history of the ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT by beating Stellazzurra Basketball Academy Rome 61-92. Rodions Kurucs collected 23 points, six rebounds, three assists, six steals and three blocks as four VEF players scored in double figures and the Latvian club improved to 1-1 in Group A play. Zigmars Raimo scored 15 points, Karlis Silins had 12 and Davis Gutmanis chipped in 14 point for the winners. Stellazzurra dropped to 0-2 despite 16 points and six rebounds from Kristinn Palsson while Andrea La Torre had 12 points and Nicola Savoldelli chipped in 11 points, five rebounds and five assists.

In a battle of teams that lost the first game in the group, Stellazzura had the better start going up 7-2. Kurucs answered with seven points in an 0-9 VEF surge to go up 7-11. Gutmanis and Silins both hit three-pointers and Gutmanis added another long ball for an 11-20 lead, which was the score after 10 minutes as the Italian club went scoreless for the final 3:24 minutes. Eduards Hazners pushed the lead to 13-26 with a three-pointer and VEF would not let Stellazzurra get back into the game. Rome could not trim the gap any closer than eight points in the second quarter. Gutmanis nailed another long ball and Kristers Zorkis knocked down a triple as well as the lead swelled to 28-45. The advantage was 30-47 at half-time.

Stellazzurra was able to make it 33-49 but Gutmanis and Raimo nailed back-to-back three-pointers and Gutmanis had a dunk midway through the third quarter to push the lead to 35-59. The margin grew to 28 points and the score was 42-70 after three quarters. La Torre’s three-point play early in the fourth quarter edged Stellazzurra to within 47-72 and Adama Ba’s dunk made it 52-75 inside of eight minutes. But VEF did not let the Rome club get any closer the rest of the way.