Zalgiris juniors too much for Zaragoza U18 0

Home side U18 Zalgiris Kaunas opened its Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Kaunas with a strong 91-79 victory over debutant U18 Casademont Zaragoza.

Mantas Rubstavicius scored 19 points to pace five Zalgiris players in double figures while Paulius Murauskas had 16 points, Matas Repsys tallied 13 points and Radvilas Kneizys and Dominykas Stenionis both contributed 10 points in the Group A win.

Alvaro Martinez poured in 24 points for Zaragoza with Daniel Arjol adding 14 points and Aitor Etxeguren and Josep Cera both picking up 12 points.

Zaragoza scored 6 straight points to go up 5-8 early. Christian Hernandez hit a triple for the Spanish side and Rubstavicius answered with a three-point play as the game was knotted 17-17. Martinez scored all 8 points in a 2-8 surge for a 19-25 lead but the home side was within 27-29 after 10 minutes.

Cera and Arjol both hit treys early in the second quarter as Zaragoza’s advantage grew to 31-38. Zalgiris then shut down Zaragoza with a 19-1 run with seven different players scoring to finish the first half ahead 50-39.

Zaragoza had a strong start to the second half with Martinez scoring 6 points in cutting the gap to 56-48. Zalgiris countered with seven straight points in pushing the margin out to 15 points – 65-50. Arjol tried to get Zaragoza closer with the team’s final seven points but the Spanish side trailed 70-57 after 30 minutes.

Liutauras Lelevicius scored four points and Kneizys and Repsys both knocked down three-pointers as Zalgiris did not let Zaragoza back into the game at 86-65. Zaragoza did score the next seven points but the game had already been decided.