U18 VEF Riga locked up seventh place at the EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Kaunas with a 69-72 win over U18 Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt. Matiss Surkulis collected 16 points while Valters Veveris scored 11 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter for VEF, which won its first game of the tournament. Fraport dropped its fourth game and finished eighth despite Isaac Bonga picking up 20 points, 14 rebounds, 8 assists, 6 steals and 1 block.

Bonga collected 7 points as Frankfurt jumped ahead 13-7. VEF responded with a 2-10 run which included a three-pointer from Surkulis for a 15-17 lead. Skyliners was up 21-20 after 10 minutes. Philipp Hadenheldt knocked down a three-pointer to give Frankfurt a 27-24 lead and it was 29-27 when Skyliners went cold on offense while Oskars Hlebovickis, Francis Lacis and Rodrigo Bumeisters all nailed three-pointers in a 0-15 VEF surge for a 29-42 cushion. It was 31-42 at the break. Bonga continued his solid game with 4 points in cutting the gap to 37-44. But Surkulis and Lacis both knocked down long balls as the VEF advantage was back up to 11 points 39-50. And the Riga side led 41-52 after 30 minutes. Lorenz Schiller came off the Fraport bench to drain a three-pointer as Skyliners got the margin down to 48-54 with a mini 7-0 spurt. But VEF responded with triples from Surkulis and Veveris to make it 48-60. It was still 52-63 after another Veveris triple. Fraport would not go down without a fight as Schiller had two layups and a three-pointer to pull Fraport within 65-67. But Veveris answered with another long ball to make it 65-70. Niklas Pons would counter with a three-pointer as Frankfurt cut it to 69-70 with 10 seconds to play. But Hlebovickis hit both free throws with 3.9 seconds remaining to give VEF the winning margin.