U18 Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius came up with a big victory to start the 2016 EUROLEAGUE BASKETBALL ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Finals by knocking off U18 Crvena Zvezda Telekom Belgrade 70-77 in Group B. Lietuvos Rytas used a big third quarter spurt to take control of the game and never looked back, led by Grantas Vasiliauskas with 15 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Aistis Pilauskas had 14 points and 7 assists for the winners while Matas Jogela scored 12 points and Tadas Vaiciunas added 11 points and 5 assists. Zvezda will have a tougher road to return to the ANGT Championship Game for a third straight time with the loss. Aleksa Uskokovic paced Zvezda with 19 points, 4 assists and 5 steals with Stefan Dordevic picking up 13 points and 7 rebounds. Borisa Simanic was held to 9 points but did pick up 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocks in the loss.

Dordevic opened the scoring for Zvezda with a putback off an offensive rebound with Vaiciunas knocking down a three for Lietuvos Rytas’ first points and first lead 2-3. A triple from Karolis Giedraitis increased the advantage to 4-8. Petar Rebic was on target from long range for Zvezda and Ivan Corovic made it 10-8 before another trey from Vaiciunas for a 10-11 lead. Dordevic converted a three-point play to put Zvezda back ahead and the game was even at 13-13. Lietuvos Rytas went ice cold, missing its next 10 shots and turning the ball over 5 times in the final 4:47 minutes of the quarter and Uskokovic scored 2 baskets in a 12-0 Zvezda run to close the first quarter up 25-13. The advantage was still 12 points as 27-15 on a Simanic basket but Zvezda then failed to execute offensively, making just 1-of-6 shots and turning the ball over three times in a 5:09 minute stretch in which Einaras Tubutis came off the bench for 4 points in a 2-14 run to knot the game at 29-29. Two Dordevic free throws put Zvezda back ahead 31-29 and Corovic’s score made it 35-32. Vasiliauskas’s three-pointer had the teams even at 35-35 going into intermission.

The game remained tight for the first three minutes of the second half, knotted at 41-41 before Lietuvos Rytas caught fire from long range. Pilauskas and Vaiciunas hit back-to-back three-pointers and Jogela added 2 of his own in a 3-minute stretch as Lietuvos Rytas went on an 0-13 run to lead 41-54. Uskokovic nailed a three-pointer to snap the run and the point guard got the deficit into single digits at 46-54. But Lietuvos Rytas was up 50-61 after 30 minutes. Jogela picked up 2 baskets early in the fourth for a 52-65 lead before a Corovic three-point play trimmed the gap to 57-65. But Lietuvos Rytas hit the next 7 points, including a three-ball by Pilauskas for a 57-72 advantage with less than 4 minutes to play. Rebic did answer with a three-ball for Zvezda but Pilauskas punched right back from long range to make it 60-75 with 2:22 left. Zvezda tried to get back into the game with Simanic and Rebic knocking down long balls to pull within 66-75 but there was only 55 seconds left and all comeback hopes were done.