“Despite not having a full squad, we are preparing for the Baltic Basketball League (BBL) Final Four. The training camp in Druskininkai was very useful as it allowed us to recover physically and psychologically, so this was had a fairly good game in result,” said Rimas Kurtinaitis, the coach of Lietuvos Rytas, after the game.
A second quarter 19:4 run gave Lietuvos Rytas a 25-point advantage at 49:24 as the favorites of the game walked in for a halftime team talk with spirits high.
“We started the game against Utena with three turnovers, but their zone defense didn’t work as we made 19 of 32 three-pointers. Juventus is a very good home team, we know what they’re capable of, they’ll be tough to handle in the next game,” Kurtinaitis was happy with his team’s shooting numbers.
Even without Justas Sinica, Igor Milosevic, Milko Bjelica and Arturas Jomantas Lietuvos Rytas was just short of extending the gap between the teams to 50 points, but settled for a 47 point blowout at the end.
“We started the game pretty well, but Lietuvos Rytas had an outstanding shooting night. We couldn’t get anything going in the second quarter while they made their shots,” Juventus coach Gintaras Kruckauskas said after the game.
Juventus also had some problems with injuries as Gintautas Matulis and Virginijus Praskevicius were out of selection.
“I can’t blame the players, we tried five different defensive schemes, but nothing was working. There were some small individual mistakes, but Lietuvos Rytas is a team of a higher caliber,” the visitor coach was graceful after the defeat.
“In my opinion, the side from Utena made the biggest improvement out of all LKL teams. Of course, we expected a tougher challenge, but they had a hard series against Neptunas in the quarterfinals. This game didn’t reveal the real strength of Juventus,” Lietuvos Rytas coach was highly complementary of his team’s opponents.
Kenan Bajramovic continued his high-octane work on offense leading the home team in scoring with 22. Steponas Babrauskas, Martynas Gecevicius and Donatas all collected 17 each while Simas Buterlevicius and Jonas Valanciunas added 14 and 11 respectively.
Darius Pakamanis, who had a short
stint with Lietuvos Rytas a couple of years ago, top-scored for Juventus
netting 18 points, Paulius Morkeliunas finished the game with 13 as Tomas
Jasiulionis had 9 of his own.
