Rytas defeats Zalgiris for first place and ANGT Finals berth

U18 Rytas Vilnius clinched a ticket to the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Finals by knocking off Lithuanian rival U18 Zalgiris Kaunas 63-84 in the ANGT Kaunas first-place game. Azoulas Tubelis led the way with 25 points and 15 rebounds in compiling a performance index rating of 37 and Augustas Marciulionis also scored 25 for Rytas, which got 11 points, 12 rebounds and 2 blocks from Andreas Kalogiros. The 2012 and 2018 continental champion Rytas advanced to the final eight-team tournament for the eighth time in 18 editions. Rytas will join U18 Herbalife Gran Canaria and U18 Real Madrid, which locked up their trips to the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four by finishing first at the ANGT Valencia and ANGT Munich respectively. Mantas Rubstavicius paced Zalgiris with 20 points with Matas Repsys and Paulius Murauskas both chipping in 11 points.

Rubstavicius and Repsys both hit three-pointers for Zalgiris while Rytas committed 2 early turnovers in falling behind 8-4. The Zalgiris offense went cold, failing to score for more than 4 minutes while Edgaras Preibys and Jokubas Rubinas both hit from long range and Tubelis scored 6 points in building an 8-16 lead. Murauskas ended the drought and then scored 5 straight points in a 9-0 finish to the first quarter to even the game at 19-19. Zalgiris could not score for the first 3 minutes of the second quarter while Marciulionis nailed a three for a 19-24 lead. Rubstavicius snapped the rut with a three-pointer of his own and added another triple to put the host side up 25-22. In between those triples, Murauskas picked up his third foul. Tubelis followed with a three-point play to put Rytas back ahead and the Vilnius club kept Zalgiris from taking the lead - thanks to a three from Armandas Plintauskas and despite Rubstavicius scoring 7 points. Tubelis's three-point play made it 36-40 at the break.

Marciulionis opened the scoring in the second half and a three-pointer by Kalogiros made it 36-45. Zalgiris's chances took a hit with 8 minutes left in the third quarter when leading scorer and rebounder Murauskas picked up his fourth foul. Zalgiris stormed back though with 6 straight points - 4 from Repsys - in cutting the deficit to 44-49. After a timeout, Marciulionis took over with 8 points in a 2-11 surge for a 46-60 lead. The margin was as big as 15 points at 48-63 and Rytas went into the final 10 minutes up 52-63. Dominykas Stenionis started the fourth quarter with a three-pointer and the deficit was down to 55-63. Rytas responded with a 2-14 run for a 57-77 lead with 6 minutes left to finish the game. The lead grew to as many as 23 points and Zalgiris did not get closer than 20 points the rest of the way.