Darius Maskoliunas was late to appear on the baseline further increasing speculations on whether he had been fired already. However, Maskoliunas joined his team with twenty minutes left until the game.
Lietuvos Rytas started the game brightly and were up 10-1 after baskets from Igor Milosevic and Donatas Zavackas.
Zalgiris was slow to react and found themselves in a difficult situation when Martynas Gecevicius increased the host lead to twenty points at 50-30 in the 21 minute of the game.
Only then did the visitors from Kaunas wake up. A 11-0 run brought Zalgiris within single-digits as the scoreboard showed 41-50.
The huge lead that Lietuvos Rytas had was melting in front of the home crowd’s eyes. Marcus Brown swished a long three-pointer to complete Zalgiris’ comeback and tie the game at 65-all. Tadas Klimavicius then scored from under the basket and gave the guests their first lead of the game.
As the game reached the last minute, Gecevicius made a wild off-balanced three-pointer from way beyond the arc over Tadas Klimavicius’ hands and put Lietuvos Rytas back in front at 78-75. Zalgiris started to foul intentionally and it paid dividends.
With 6,5 seconds on the clock Donatas Zavackas missed the first of two free-throws and gave the opponents a chance to go either for a victory, or a win. However, Dainius Salenga’s contested mid-range shot didn’t fall and the home team celebrated the second victory in the finals.
An impressive performance by Martynas Gecevicius has to be pointed above the rest – the young guard made 5-of-7 triples and collected 28 points overall. “Martynas is our key player and the team leader, who we can always rely on. I’m very happy that he has matured,” Lietuvos Rytas coach Rimas Kurtinaitis spoke highly of Gecevicius effort.
Arturas Jomantas had another good game with 18 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists in his account. Igor Milosevic collected 12 points, but cost his team five turnovers and had to leave the game early having fouled out.
Zalgiris was once again led by Tadas Klimavicius, who set the pace for the visitors with 23 points and 8 rebounds, Marcus Brown was his old self and finished the game with 21 points. Dainius Salenga collected 11 and Mario Delas added 8.
