Zalgiris continued the team’s unbeaten run in the Lithuanian League (LKL) by winning the bigger rivalry in Lithuanian sports against Lietuvos Rytas 82-72 (22-17, 21-21, 19-13, 25-16) in Vilnius on Saturday.
The game picked off slowly, but Lietuvos Rytas managed to gain a 7-2 advantage halfway through the first period, maintaining the small lead until the end of the quarter.
Although Zalgiris shortly went ahead in the second period, the hosts regained the advantage and finished the first half with a five point lead at 48-43.
However, the visitors already found themselves with a 57-56 advantage after the third quarter, pulling away even further with an 8-0 in the fourth period, which gave them a nine-point lead from which Lietuvos Rytas could not bounce back.
Paulius Jankunas led the visitors in scoring with 18 points and nine rebounds, Sonny Weems had 15, Tomas Delininkaitis scored 10, while Mantas Kalnietis finished the game with nine for Zalgiris.
Renaldas Seibutis and Tyrese Rice were the leading scorers for Lietuvos Rytas with 17 points each, Aleskandar Rasic had 15, while Mindaugas Katelynas added eight.
