Latvia wins gold in 3x3 Olympic basketball tournament

TOKYO - The Latvian 3x3 basketball team of Agnis Cavars, Nauris Miezis, Karlis Pauls Lasmanis and Edgars Krumins on Wednesday defeated the Russian Olympic Committee team 21:18 in the Tokyo Olympics' gold medal game.

Latvia outlasted Russia despite Krumins' injury toward the end of the game, when he sprained his left ankle and eventually had to sit out the rest of the match.

Ilia Karpenkov opened the scoring, Cavars quickly made the score 1:1. Two minutes into the game, Stanislav Sharov extended Russia's lead to 6:3.

After scoring several two-pointers, the ROC side was leading 10:6, but after Miezis' two-pointer and a pass to the cutting Lasmanis, the score was 11:10 for the ROC team.

With three minutes and 44 seconds to go, Lasmanis tied the game at 13:13, and a few seconds later Miezis put Latvia ahead 14:13.

The two teams kept trading shots, and shortly before the last minute the score was 19:18 for Latvia. 28 seconds before the buzzer, Lasmanis hit the game-winning two-pointer, winning the game 21:18.

In the bronze medal game earlier today, Serbia defeated Belgium 21:10.

As reported, in the semifinals Latvia routed Belgium 21:8.