Zalgiris come back to defeat Lietuvos Rytas 0

Povilas Baranauskas, LithuaniaBasketball.com

In the first official battle between the two Lithuanian giants, Zalgiris Kaunas rose as the victors, beating Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius 79-90 (26-20, 20-23, 17-25, 16-22). Lietuvos Rytas was up and running from the opening minutes, as Renaldas Seibutis hit three-of-three from downtown just in the first quarter. Lietuvos Rytas held a 6 point lead after the first quarter. Although the team from Vilnius had a 12 point lead in the second quarter, Zalgiris managed to trim it down to 3 entering half-time. Zalgiris came out firing with all cylinders after the break and set sail to amass a 13 point lead. Renaldas Seibutis, as usual, was the driving force for Lietuvos Rytas, as he scored 25 points and dished out 6 assists. Nemanja Nedovic finished the game with 11 points, while Mindaugas Katelynas contributed 10. Marko Popovic scored a team-high 20 points for Zalgiris, while Ibrahim Jaaber added 16 points and 5 steals. Rimantas Kaukenas scored 12, while both Mindaugas Kuzminskas and Vytenis Lipkevicius ended the game with 10.