Lietuvos Rytas advanced to the next stage of the
Euroleague Qualifying Round with an 83-64 (21-22, 19-10, 16-17, 27-15) victory
over Montenegrin side Buducnost Podgorica in Vilnius on Thursday.
The home team had a slow start to the game, but eventually started pulling away from the opponents. A 19-7 run in the second quarter gave Lietuvos Rytas a double-digit lead at 42-32, but the visitors managed to cut that in half in the second period.
However, all of the Montenegrin side’s chances to fully bounce back were nullified by two technical fouls, which allowed Lietuvos Rytas to go on a 21-3 run to decide the final outcome of the game.
“The final score doesn't really reflect the way the game went. We worked really hard. We felt a bit of pressure because we're the hosts and it's the first time we played in this big gym this season,“Aleksandar Dzikic, the new coach of Lietuvos Rytas said after the game.
Renaldas Seibutis led the hosts with 17 points, Tyrese Rice had 16 points and 5 assists, while Jonas Valanciunas added a solid 11 points and 8 rebounds.
Steponas Babrauskas and Mindaugas Katelynas both finished the game with 10 points, while Brad Newley and Predrag Samardziski ended up collecting 7 each.
Nikola Vucevic, who was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2011 NBA Draft, had a game-high 18 points, but that wasn’t enough for the Montenegrin side.
Nikola Ivanovic scored 14 for Buducnost, while Bohan Krstovic and Vladimir Mihailovic had 9 and 7 resepctively.
Lietuvos Rytas’ next challenge will be Cibona Zagreb, who defeated Cholet Basket in the first game of the day.
