Zalgiris looses in Vilnius in game five of LKL finals 0
A tough start by Zalgiris was too hard to overcome in game five of the Lithuanian League (LKL) finals. Lietuvos Rytas celebrated an 89:75 (30:20, 21:21, 22:18, 16:16) win against the visiting Zalgiris Kaunas side for a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Both sides had casualties – the hosts had to do without Donatas Zavackas, while Zalgiris’ Mirza Begic and Povilas Butkevicius were also sidelined.
Lietuvos Rytas started the game with 11 unanswered points and were up 14:1 after a couple of episodes. It took nearly ten minutes for Zalgiris to wake up as Kalnietis shrunk the home team’s lead to five (36:41) with two successful free-throws.
However, this was as close Zalgiris would get this evening as Lietuvos Rytas managed to increase their lead to 15 points with Martynas Gecevicius’ basket at the end of the third.
The fourth quarter was only a formality as Lietuvos Rytas continued to maintain the lead.
Zalgiris shot the ball catastrophically from the charity stripe and managed to increase the percentage only in the fourth quarter, when everything was already decided. The club from Kaunas made only 22-of-35 attempts.
Martynas Pocius shot 4-of-5 from the three-point line and finished the game with 21 for Zalgiris – the guard missed his first five free-throws, but then made the last five. The captain and coach of the team Dainius Salenga and Mantas Kalnietis both scored 12 as Tadas Klimavicius chipped in 8.
Kenan Bajramovic paced Lietuvos Rytas with 21 points and 9 rebounds as Martynas Gecevicius added 18, making 4-of-5 from beyond the arc. Steponas Babrauskas had by far the best game of the series finishing with 16 points, Arturas Jomantas scored 11, Milko Bjelica added 10 and Igor Milosevic had 8 points and 7 assists for the home team.
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