Lietuvos Rytas needed only 3 minutes to decide the outcome of the Baltic Basketball League (BBL) game versus Liepajas Lauvas on the road. The Lithuanians took a 85:67 victory in a second game in two days against Latvian opposition.
Martynas Gecevicius led Lietuvos Rytas in scoring with 14 points and 6 rebounds, Justas Sinica and Dejan Borovnjak, who also grabbed 6 boards, collected 13 each. Aron Baynes had a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Arturas Jomantas handed in another all-around performance with 10 points, 8 boards and 6 assists.
Oleg Kojenets had a game-leading 23 points and 8 rebounds, Ugis Vilums added 14 points, as Vairis Pusaudzis and Laimonas Kisielius had 13 and 11 respectively.
Rimas Kurtinaitis started the game with the lineup of Aron Baynes, Lukas Brazdauskis, Arturas Jomantas, Martynas Gecevicius and Evaldas Dainys.
Liepajas Lauvas struck the visitors with an unexpected 8:0 run in the first quarter to go ahead 13:8.
However, Lietuvos Rytas tied the game at 20:20 with Bojan Popovic hitting a triple and the side from Vilnius went on to score 20 points in three minutes, allowing the Latvians to collect only two in that span. As Lauvas was still recovering from shocking blow, Lietuvos Rytas already had a solid advantage, leading 43:26.
The second half did not see either side change the game drastically, the Lithuanians finished it with confidence and handed Liepajas Lauvas a ninth defeat in the competition.
The visitors won the battle under the boards by a huge advantage - 45:27.
