Lietuvos Rytas defeat Neptunas to make it to the Cup final

Lietuvos Rytas was the first team to book a place in the Lithuanian Cup final after strolling past Neptunas 84-65 (17-20, 23-15, 23-12, 21-18) in the second half of what seemed to be a close game until the middle of the third quarter. The first semifinal of the Lithuanian Cup between was also an opening fixture of the newly renovated Alytus arena.

• You can check out the moments from the game in our photo gallery.

“We did what we had to do to enter the final. I wanted to play this game with a bigger rotation and that’s why we lost the rhythm a couple of times in the game,” Lietuvos Rytas’ coach Aleksandr Trifunovic said.

Martynas Gecevicius led the current Cup holders, Lietuvos Rytas, with 18 points, while Kenan Bajramovic and Stepnas Babrauskas scored 11 points each. Khalid El-Amin, Brad Newley and Jonas Valanciunas all had 7 points as Arturas Jomantas and Milko Bjelica both chipped in with 6 points.

“We wanted to bite [Lietuvos Rytas] and be in the game for as long as possible. Everything was going fairly well, but we needed to play with more discipline and fire. We just ran out of energy and started committing mistakes, while they used that to full extent,” said Neptunas’ coach Robertas Kuncaitis after the game.

Neptunas’ key player was Martynas Mazeika, who collected 16 points, Mantas Rukis scored 13 as Simas Galdikas had a good game with 11 points and 7 boards. Valdas Vasylius contributed with 9 points and 8 rebounds and Dustin Heiman added 5 points of his own.