The Czech Republic, who aim to repeat as EuroBasket champions, are on the right track.

For now they have won first place in Group A of the preliminary round after another one-sided win, this time 70-44 over Latvia on Wednesday day in Vasto.

The Czech Republic finished the group on top with a perfect 3-0 record, their closest margin was a 24 point win over Turkey.

		Jekabsone-Zogota was a bright spot for Latvia, finishing with 17 points and five assists.

Latvia finished second with a 2-1 record, but will carry the win over Turkey to the next round.

For one half Latvia was still giving a fight, but once the Czech locomotive started its run, there was not much to do at the other end.

"This was our best game," said coach Jan Bobrovsky of the Czech side. "We kept Latvia on 44 points and that's an example for the good defense we played today."

"In the second half we played quicker. Pushed the ball for the fast breaks and took better shots."

Four players scored in double-digits for the Czech team. Eva Viteckova led the way with 12 points, Petra Kulichova and Jana Vesela both had 11 points and seven rebounds while Michala Hartigova scored 10.

Anete Jekabsone-Zogota had a total of 17 points while Liene Jansone scored 13.

The Czechs were up from the very beginning, starting with an 11-4 lead after four minutes.

After Latvia tied the game with a 7-0 run, the champs combined four in a row to finish the first quarter up 15-11.

Vesela and Viteckova made the first double-digit lead in the game, 23-13, which later was extended to 16, but Latvia didn't give up yet.

Jekabsone-Zogota collected 12 points to make it 37-29 one minute inside the third quarter, but that's when the Czech blitz started.

Latvia tried any trick in the book to collect points, but failed time after time, while the Czechs hardly missed, controlled the rebounds and finished their run only when the game was decided.

With five minutes to play Latvia was 62-33 behind, after a 25-4 run by their opponents.

Both teams qualified to Group E where they'll meet Belgium, Germany and Lithuania to fight for a quarter-finals spot.

Czech will face Germany on Friday while Latvia will take on Lithuania.

The first round is very stressful if you secure your spot in the next round early, both Czech Republic and Latvia are done with that.

With two wins in the first two days they have one worry less on their mind and can now can focus on fighting for the first "gold medal" of the tournament – first place in Group A.

Latvia would like to show they can compete with the crème-de-la-crème here, while the Czech Republic wants to add another easy win to their bag, after a 32 points difference over Israel and 24 over Turkey.

Last Time Out: The Czechs easily beat Turkey 86-62 to maintain the perfect record, while Latvia fought hard to get a win over Israel 77-73.

Head to Head: In the preliminary round of EuroBasket 2005 the future champs from the Czech Republic easily took over the Latvian team with a 76-45 win, after leading 46-18 at half-time.

Key Match Up: Anete Jekabsone-Zogota showed last night why she's considered one of the best scorers in this championship, and was a true leader for her team. She now stands as the best scorer in the championship. Latvia will need her in another top performance to bother the the Czech team. On the other side will wait Eva Viteckova, who steps up for her team in the minutes they take off. If Viteckova's contribution will be limited, the Czechs will need to look for someone else to carry the big run they are looking for in every game.

X-Factor: Gunta Basko was the added value of Latvia in the great win on opening night versus Turkey, but yesterday didn't get into the rhythm of the game. In order to beat the defending champs Latvia must get another great performance from Basko.

Statistics: Latvia is the best free throw shooting team here, while from the field they are ranked just a tiny-bit behind the Czechs. If Latvia maintains their good shooting percentage, they'll be able to also reduce the number of fast breaks and easy baskets of Czech, and stay in the game.

What It Means: The winner of this game will win the first place in the group, while the loser will finish second and carry a loss to the qualifying round.