Revenge achieved: “Rytas” broke the thinned Panevezys / News

In the LKL championship in Vilnius “Rytas” (18-4) took revenge on Panevėžys “7bet-Lietkabelius” (13-9) for failure in the KMT semifinals. The pupils of Giedrias Žibėnas achieved victory in the capital of Aukštaitia 89:77 (17:18, 26:22, 20:16, 26:21).

After this victory, the people of Vilnius even more established themselves in the second position of the standings, as they also gained a mutual advantage over the people from Panevėžys. “Rytas” won the first LKL meeting in Vilnius 94:73.

7bet-Lietkabelis remains fourth and has the same win-loss record as Utena’s Juventus. The Panevėžys do not lose hope of catching the third-placed Vilnius Wolves (15-8).

The hosts started the match solidly, when they quickly built up a double-digit advantage (14:4) and forced Žibėnas to use both possible minute breaks. Such a message from the coach bore fruit, as “Rytas” already had a 6-point lead (32:26) in the second half.

After the break, “7bet-Lietkabelis” took a slight lead again, but then “Rytas” played the best part of the match. The home team failed to score points for 3 minutes, the Vilnius team went on a 10-0 run and accumulated an 8-point lead (63:55).

Rytas continued to dominate its defense in the decisive quarter. This time the visitors scored 6 points without reply and after gaining a double-digit lead, they went towards victory.

“I think all the players have become tougher,” Žibėnas said at the press conference. – Tough game, especially in the second half of the game and it’s good that we broke through the defense in the second game in a row. All the players made good decisions at the big break because to concede so many cheap points without a fight was a little bit incomprehensible considering how we played the last game against them. But each player made their own conclusions and I would say that what 7bet-Lietkabelis got was hard shots. We can’t lose with them.”

Panevėžys team was not helped by the injuries of Džoržje Gagičius and Dovis Bičkauskis in this match. “Rytas” registered Margiris Normantas for the match, but the captain, who has not played for more than a month, did not step on the floor.

Martynas Echodas stood out in the ranks of the Vilnius team, who had 19 points (8/9 doubles, 3/6 penalty triples), 7 rebounds, 1 assist and 30 utility points in 22 minutes.

For the Panevėžys team, Deividas Sirvydis scored 23 points (5/7 doubles, 3/6 triples, 4/5 penalties), rebounded 3 balls, made 1 assist and collected 24 utility points in 30 minutes.

“7bet-Lietkabelis”: Deividas Sirvydis 23 (5/7 doubles, 3/6 triples), Nikola Popovich 18 (8/13 doubles), Vytenis Lipkevičius 11 (5/6 doubles), Gediminas Orelikas 9 (2 /7 triples, 5 rebounds, 4 assists), Paulius Valinskas 7 (5/5 penalties).

“Rytas”: Martynas Echodas 19 (8/9 doubles, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks, 30 assists), Gytis Masiulis 14 (2/2 triples, 6/6 penalties), Javins DeLaurier (5 /6 doubles) and Marcus Foster (7 rebounds) 10 each, Arnas Velička 9 (2/6 triples), Justin Gorham 7 (1/7 triples).

Press conference:

Match Review:

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