Zalgiris juniors start ANGT Kaunas with win over VEF Riga 0

U18 Zalgiris Kaunas continued its dominance at the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Kaunas with a 74:59 victory over U18 VEF Riga.

Grantas Vasiliaukas scored 18 points and Martynas Arlauskas picked up 15 points for Zalgiris in the Group B game. Zalgiris, which has now won 13 straight ANGT Kaunas qualifying games, will next take on U18 Canarias Basketball Academy Las Palmas later Thursday.

VEF was paced by Edvards Mezulis with 15 points and 10 rebounds. VEF’s second game Thursday will be against U18 CSKA Moscow.

VEF started with 2 three-pointers but then watched as Zalgiris go on a 9:0 run to lead 11:6. VEF evened the game at 13:13 and the scored was knotted at 15:15 after 10 minutes.

Zalgiris held VEF to just 4 free throws for the first 7:36 minutes of the second quarter and Vasiliauskas scored 6 points in helping open a 30:19 cushion. Rodrigo Bumeisters’ jumper finally gave VEF its first basket of the second quarter. And VEF stayed in the game and trailed 28:35 at intermission.

Arlauskas knocked down 2 three-pointers to start the second half and the Zalgiris lead was up to 41:30. Adrians Snipke came off the VEF bench to score 5 points to try to keep the Riga side close, trailing 44:55 after three quarters.

Mezulis picked up 7 points as VEF put together one final run as it was 54:58 after a 10:3 surge to start the fourth quarter. But Vasiliauskas and Arlauskas would not let the host team lose in helping open a 70:56 lead.