U18 Zalgiris Kaunas took control in the fourth quarter to open its 2016 EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Finals with an 81-68 victory over U18 Mega Bemax Belgrade in Group A. Gytis Masiulis totalled 21 points and 10 rebounds for the two-time champion Zalgiris while Lukas Uleckas scored 18 points. Ignas Sargiunas tallied 16 points for the winners with Arnas Velicka collecting 12 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists and Tadas Pazeras chipping in 8 points and 9 assists. The game was a back-and-forth affair with 7 ties and 12 lead changes in the first three quarters, but Zalgiris never let Mega pull ahead in the final frame. Marko Pecarski paced Mega with 17 points while Nikola Miskovic scored 15 points and Novak Music had 12 points, 5 rebounds and 9 assists in the defeat.

Dziugas Slavinskas scored the first point of the game on a free throw for Zalgiris and Masiulis made it 3-0. Miskovic finally got Mega on the board after nearly 2 minutes of play. Masiulis’s second basket made it 7-4. Then Zalgiris went scoreless for the next 4:18 minutes as Uros Plavsic and Pecarski both nailed three-pointers in an 0-12 Mega run for a 7-16 advantage. Mega then went cold and made just 1 basket over the final 3 minutes as Sargiunas and Uleckas nailed back-to-back long balls to help Zalgiris close to within 17-18 after 10 minutes. The game went back and forth in the second quarter until Jovan Vojinovic’s three-point play made it 22-26. Velicka and Masiulis were Zalgiris’s main weapons while Miskovic tallied five points as neither team led by more than 3 points after Vojinovic’s score. Plavsic knocked down his second three-pointer as Mega led 35-38 at intermission - finishing off a second quarter which saw 3 ties and 8 lead changes.

The game continued to go back and forth in the third quarter with Zalgiris going up 43-40 on a three-point play from Masiulis and three-ball from Sargiunas. Two Pecarski baskets put Mega ahead 45-46 before another long ball from Sargiunas put Zalgiris ahead 50-46. After 2 more ties, the margin was 56-54 after 30 minutes. Uleckas hit a three-pointer and scored a basket early in the fourth as the cushion grew to 63-56. Mega responded with the next 6 points with Aleksa Matic’s score getting the Serbian team to within 63-62 with 5 minutes to play. But Sargiunas and Uleckas continued their hot shooting with three-pointers in helping Zalgiris open a 71-62 gap. Matic snapped a 2:19 minute scoreless stretch and Music trimmed the deficit to 71-66. But Mega failed to score on its next three possessions and Masiulis converted a three-point play and Pazera scored for a 77-66 margin with 37 seconds to play to decide the game.