2017–18 Baltic Basketball League

The 2017–18 Triobet Baltic Basketball League was the 14th and the last season of the Baltic Basketball League and the third under the title sponsorship of Triobet. The season began on 24 October 2017 and concluded on 5 April 2018. Last year's finalist Pieno žvaigždės defeated Jūrmala in the finals to win their first Baltic Basketball League title.^[1]

2017–18 Baltic Basketball League
Season	2017–18
Duration	24 October 2017 – 5 April 2018
Number of teams	13 (14)
TV partner(s)	Delfi TV
Finals
Champions	Pieno žvaigždės (First title)
Runners-up	Jūrmala
Third place	University of Tartu
Fourth place	Šiauliai
Finals MVP	Jahenns Manigat
Statistical leaders
Points Yauheni Beliankou 18.40 Rebounds Viktors Iļjins 11.00 Assists Donatas Sabeckis 6.88
← 2016–17

Competition format

In this edition 14 teams took part. They were divided into two groups of seven teams where, after a double-legged round-robin, the best four of each group will qualify to the quarterfinals. Kazakh team Barsy Atyrau and Belarusian Tsmoki-Minsk II played all their matches abroad.^[2]

Midway through the season Vytautas withdrew from the league due to them forfeiting two different games in this league for different reasons. As a result, they would participate in a series of friendly matches dubbed the Big Baller Brand Challenge Games; it was created for the purpose of promoting their newest acquisitions at the time in LiAngelo Ball and LaMelo Ball.^[3]

Team information

Group	Team	City, Country	Arena	Head coach
Group A	AVIS Rapla	Rapla, Estonia	Sadolin Sports Hall	Aivar Kuusmaa
	Port of Pärnu	Pärnu, Estonia	Pärnu Sports Hall	Heiko Rannula
	Betsafe/Liepāja	Liepāja, Latvia	Liepāja Olympic Center	Agris Galvanovskis
	Jūrmala	Jūrmala, Latvia	Jūrmala State Gymnasium	Mārtiņš Gulbis
	Šiauliai	Šiauliai, Lithuania	Šiauliai Arena	Antanas Sireika
	Vytautas	Prienai/Birštonas, Lithuania	Prienai Arena	Virginijus Šeškus
	Tsmoki-Minsk II	Minsk, Belarus	The team will play away	Rostislav Vergun
Group B	University of Tartu	Tartu, Estonia	University of Tartu Sports Hall	Priit Vene
	TLÜ/Kalev	Tallinn, Estonia	Kalev Sports Hall	Gert Kullamäe
	TTÜ	Tallinn, Estonia	TTÜ Sports Hall	Rait Käbin
	Valmiera/ORDO	Valmiera, Latvia	Vidzeme Olympic Center	Kristaps Valters
	Ogre	Ogre, Latvia	Ogre 1st Secondary School	Arturs Visockis-Rubenis
	Pieno žvaigždės	Pasvalys, Lithuania	Pieno žvaigždės Arena	Gediminas Petrauskas
	Barsy Atyrau	Atyrau, Kazakhstan	The team will play away	Aleksandar Vrzina

Regular season

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Qualification
1	Jūrmala	10	9	1	823	689	+134	Qualification to playoffs
2	Šiauliai	10	9	1	898	713	+185
3	AVIS Utilitas Rapla	10	5	5	788	786	+2
4	Port of Pärnu	10	3	7	757	788	−31
5	Betsafe Liepāja	10	3	7	612	765	−153
6	Tsmoki-Minsk II	10	1	9	686	823	−137
7	Vytautas^[a] (D)	0	0	0	0	0	0	Disqualified

Source: BBL.net
(D) Disqualified
Notes:

1. Vytautas forfeit and was consequently disqualified.^[4]

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Qualification
1	Pieno žvaigždės	12	11	1	1188	832	+356	Qualification to playoffs
2	University of Tartu	12	8	4	1027	905	+122
3	Ogre Kumho Tyre	12	8	4	1073	910	+163
4	TLÜ Kalev	12	7	5	978	922	+56
5	Valmiera ORDO	12	3	9	877	1109	−232
6	TTÜ	12	3	9	857	998	−141
7	Barsy Atyrau	12	2	10	765	1089	−324

Source: BBL.net

Playoffs

In the knockout phase rounds will be played in a home-and-away format, with the overall cumulative score determining the winner of a round. Thus, the score of one single game can be tied.^[5]

Bracket

	Quarterfinals 27 February 2018 – 7 March 2018							Semifinals 14 March 2018 – 21 March 2018							Finals 28 March 2018 – 5 April 2018
	B4	TLÜ Kalev	81	68	149
	A1	Jūrmala	89	77	166
								A1	Jūrmala	81	81	162
								B2	University of Tartu	69	83	152
	A3	AVIS Utilitas Rapla	67	47	114
	B2	University of Tartu	73	76	149
															A1	Jūrmala	80	68	148
															B1	Pieno žvaigždės	98	76	174
	B3	Ogre Kumho Tyre	75	87	162
	A2	Šiauliai	78	97	175
								A2	Šiauliai	84	64	148			Third place
								B1	Pieno žvaigždės	91	68	159
	A4	Port of Pärnu	66	84	150										B2	University of Tartu	86	78	164
	B1	Pieno žvaigždės	96	78	174										A2	Šiauliai	88	70	158

Finals

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	1st leg	2nd leg
Jūrmala	148–174	Pieno žvaigždės	80–98	68–76

Game 1

28 March 2018 19:00

Boxscore

Jūrmala	80–98	Pieno žvaigždės
Scoring by quarter: 21–20, 24–23, 17–31, 18–24
Pts: Edgars Jeromanovs 24 Rebs: Andrejs Šeļakovs 9 Asts: Edgars Jeromanovs 6		Pts: Trévon Hughes 22 Rebs: Hughes, Manigat 5 each Asts: Jahenns Manigat 8

Jūrmala State Gymnasium Attendance: 700 Referees: Rain Peerandi (EST), Oskars Lucis (LAT), Arturas Sukys (LTU)

---

Game 2

5 April 2018 18:00

Boxscore

Pieno žvaigždės	76–68	Jūrmala
Scoring by quarter: 25–18, 18–24, 22–12, 11–14
Pts: Artūrs Ausējs 19 Rebs: Jahenns Manigat 7 Asts: Jahenns Manigat 7		Pts: Ervīns Jonāts 15 Rebs: Denis Krestinin 12 Asts: Denis Krestinin 3

Pasvalys Pieno žvaigždės Arena Attendance: 1000 Referees: Gintaras Vitkauskas (LTU), Aare Halliko (EST), Martins Kozlovskis (LAT)

Baltic Basketball League 2017–18 Champions
Pieno žvaigždės 1st title

Awards

MVP of the Month

Month	Player	Team	Ref.
November 2017	Steven Cook	University of Tartu	^[6]
December 2017	Laurynas Birutis	Šiauliai	^[7]
January 2018	Janar Talts	University of Tartu	^[8]
February 2018	Ivars Žvīgurs	Jūrmala	^[9]
March 2018	Laurynas Birutis (2)	Šiauliai	^[10]

Source: BBL Homepage

Finals MVP

•   Jahenns Manigat (  Pieno žvaigždės)^[11]

Player statistics

Players qualify to this category by having at least 50% games played.

Points

Rank	Name	Team	Games	Points	PPG
1	Yauheni Beliankou	Tsmoki-Minsk II	10	184	18.40
2	Jānis Kaufmanis	Valmiera ORDO	12	196	16.33
3	Nolan Cressler	AVIS Utilitas Rapla	12	194	16.17

Assists

Rank	Name	Team	Games	Assists	APG
1	Donatas Sabeckis	Šiauliai	16	110	6.88
2	Norman Käbin	TTÜ	12	69	5.75
3	Rinalds Sirsniņš	Ogre Kumho Tyre	14	75	5.36

Rebounds

Rank	Name	Team	Games	Rebounds	RPG
1	Viktors Iļjins	Valmiera ORDO	11	121	11.00
2	Bamba Fall	TLÜ Kalev	14	119	8.50
3	Devonte Upson	AVIS Utilitas Rapla	12	97	8.08

Efficiency

Rank	Name	Team	Games	Efficiency	PIR
1	Laurynas Birutis	Šiauliai	15	302	20.13
2	Bamba Fall	TLÜ Kalev	14	280	20.00
3	Viktors Iļjins	Valmiera ORDO	11	209	19.00

References

1. "NPieno Zvaigzdes crowned as BBL champions". Baltic Basketball League. 5 April 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
2. "New BBL season ready for tip-off". Baltic Basketball League. 12 October 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
3. "Prienu Vytautas to Play in 'Big Baller Brand Challenge Games'". Sports Illustrated. 6 January 2018. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
4. "Vytautas forfeits, disqualification looming". Baltic Basketball League. 6 January 2018. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
5. "Competition system". Baltic Basketball League. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
6. "Steven Cook lands first Player of the Month award". Baltic Basketball League. 1 December 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
7. "Birutis claims player of the month honors". Baltic Basketball League. 29 December 2017. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
8. "Janar Talts claims January's Player of the Month honors". Baltic Basketball League. 2 February 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
9. "Ivars Zvigurs lights up February for Player of the Month award". Baltic Basketball League. 1 March 2018. Retrieved 7 March 2018.
10. "Birutis rakes in March MVP honors". Baltic Basketball League. 1 April 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
11. "Finals MVP Manigat: "You're only as good as your fans"". Baltic Basketball League. 6 April 2018. Retrieved 12 April 2018.

External links

• Official website