- You can check out the moments from the game in our photo gallery.
This will be the first time in the league’s history, that the final will include only one Lithuanian team, as previous gold medal matches were played out between Zalgiris and Lietuvos Rytas, who have three trophies each.
“We played some disciplined basketball and fought well. I would like to thank the crowd, who were behind us all the way – both the locals and the devoted fans from Riga. It is a historic victory, which couldn’t be reached if we hadn’t played as a team,” Ramunas Butautas, the Lithuanian coach of VEF, said after the big upset.
VEF’s center from Belarus, Artsiom Parakhouski, had a game-high 20 points, Sandis Valters scored 14 and Dairis Bertans ended the game with 10 in his account.
“VEF deserved to win. They played as a team, just what they needed in order to succeed. We have been having problems the last three or four weeks. When a team makes only eight assists, and half of them are by a player who’s here only for a week, you cannot expect a victory,” Lietuvos Rytas’ coach Aleskandar Trifunovic stated after the game.
Kenan Bajramovic scored the majority of his 17 points from the free-throw line, but it wasn’t enough to pull Lietuvos Rytas to a victorious comeback. Martynas Gecevicius missed a lot of shots, but ended up scoring 14 points, Milko Bjelica had 13 while Simas Jasaitis and Aleskandar Rasic both added 8.
