"We were witnesses to the phenomenal support we had from our fans. My players were simply fantastic," said Dusko Vujosevic.
To make the matter even worse, Partizan will have the point difference advantage as they lost the first leg 'only' by 22.
"We were not chasing the score that led us to the Top 16. We were patient and concentrated. That helped us to achieve our goal, which was to win by over 23 points," Aleksandar Rasic spoke after the game.
Bojan Popovic led his team with 17, but questionable decision making at the start of the last quarter got Lietuvos Rytas into a big slump, Arturas Jomantas and Martynas Gecevicius added 11 each. Gecevicius did not hit a three-pointer for the first time in 12 straight Euroleague games.
Donatas Zavackas scored 10 as Milko Bjelica also finished in double-digits, but hit only 2 of 13 field goal attempts.
The hosts piled-drove Lietuvos Rytas even without the key figure of Aleksandar Maric, who got injured in the beginning of the second quarter after a collision with Milko Bjelica.
"The good news is that Maric is not seriously injured. At first it seemed that his ligaments were torn, but his knee injury is lighter. He will be sidelined for a week or two," Dusko Vujosevic said.
Aleksandar Rasic nailed 6 of 8 from downtown to collect 26 points, Lawrence Roberts added 16 points and 7 rebounds as Slavko Vranes finished the game with 13 points and 9 boards with 4 blocked shots.
"Partizan deserved this win. They were a much better team in all respects. We have no alibi for our bad performance. No alibi for us. We have to sit and see what our problems are and try to solve them. Once again congratulation to Partizan," said Lietuvos Rytas coach Kurtinaitis.
Martynas Gecevicius scored a two-pointer early in the second period to bring the visitors within 6 (30:36), but Partizan regained the handles of the game to rebuild a double-digit lead before halftime.
The last quarter was a nightmare for the Lithuanian club. Partizan dominated the game with a special defensive effort from the huge center Slavko Vranes, who denied all paths to the home team's basket. Only Donatas Zavackas' free-throws ended an 18:2 run, which lasted for the first eight minutes of the period - 90:63.
"The key moment of the game was when our center, Aleks Maric, was injured and left the court. He is such an important player in our team, but the other players managed to fill the gap after he was sidelined," Vujosevic spoke about the reasons for this result.
Lietuvos Rytas tried to get the score within 22 using intentional fouls, but that did not seem to work, as the score difference continued to grow.
Partizan has guaranteed a spot for themselves in the Top 16, while Lietuvos Rytas has to rely on the failure of Efes Pilsen, who will play against the mighty Olympiacos Piraeus on Thursday.
The team from Vilnius will have to defeat Unicaja at home in Lithuania and hope that Efes Pilsen loses either to Olympiacos or Entente Orleanaise.
