LKF Cup doesn’t return to Kaunas after final 0
Zalgiris Kaunas finished second in Lithuanian Basketball Federation (LKF) Cup competition. In the final game the usual rival Lietuvos Rytas won 77:65 (19:23, 26:14, 8:11, 27:17) in a front of half-filled Siemens Arena in their home court in Vilnius.
“I couldn’t say that the men didn’t fight and didn’t want the victory. I don’t want to put all the blame on the players, but we made underlined the threat from their main players, whom we should have stopped and we couldn’t cope with exactly those players today,” Zalgiris coach Darius Maskoliunas was disappointed after the game.
Tadas Klimavicius deserved a gold medal, if not two, for his devotion and an amazing statistical performance. Zalgiris’ power forward had a game-leading 21 points, 16 rebounds and 4 blocks, that brought his index to an outstanding total of 40.
Martynas Pocius ended the game with 15 points while Marcus Brown and Dainius Salenga scored 12 and 8 respectively.
“It’s hard to talk because we lost the final. We didn’t defend, didn’t accomplish some of our tasks, who to defend, we missed a lot of easy shots from under the rim,” said Tadas Klimavicius. “I don’t think we lacked temper. We’re trying to dig out from the situation. We were concentrated both yesterday and today, we all wanted to win.”
Zalgiris’ point guards Mantas Kalnietis and Aleksandar Capin had a combined performance of 1-of-14 field goal attempts, 6 turnovers and an index of -8.
“You can see the statistics yourself of our playmakers. Capin looked very good yesterday and we thought he could be that player, who’ll bring some energy from the bench, but he was a shadow of himself today. Mantas is trying really hard, but just doesn’t succeed all the time,” Maskoliunas commented on his playmakers’ performance.
Martynas Gecevicius was named the most valuable player of the whole tournament, leading Lietuvos Rytas with 18 points on a 4-of-5 long-range shooting night and a great defensive effort against Zalgiris key player Marcus Brown.
Milko Bjelica also scored 18 and grabbed 7 rebounds while Arturas Jomantas had another all-around performance with 14 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals. Kenan Bajramovic collected 14 points for his side and Igor Milosevic finished the game adding 9 points and 4 assists.
The visiting Kaunas side had a small advantage early in the game and led by four points (27:23) in the first half of the second period when Igor Milosevic ignited a 10:0 rally for Lietuvos Rytas, that was capped by a three-pointer by Arturas Jomantas to swing the lead to the hosts – 33:27.
Despite an answering three from Marcus Brown on the other end, Martynas Gecevicius scored 7 straight points on his own for Lietuvos Rytas to reach a double-digit lead at one point.
Lietuvos Rytas took the control of the game in the third and reached a 13 point lead with the score at 53:40. But while many thought the outcome of the game was already clear, Zalgiris finished the quarter with an 8:0 run to clear the deficit to only five points – 48:53.
“We lacked a little bit of luck in the first half. The team didn’t play bad, but we missed from positions, where it’s harder to miss the shot than to make. There was a noticeable lack of energy in some of our players. I don’t want to start making excuses – a final is a final and the players forget the tiredness, but that saw through at the end,” Maskoliunas tried to find an explanation for the loss.
The club from Vilnius allowed only two points in the first five minutes of the last quarter to run ahead once again and didn’t let the lead slip this time.
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