VEF Riga will play for the title at the Kaunas NIJT Qualifying Tournament after defeating Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius 65-52 on Saturday night. With third win in as many games, Riga won Group B and will play against Zalgiris Kaunas in Sunday’s finals, while Rytas dropped to 2-1 and will play USK Future Stars Prague in the third-place game. Rihards Lomazs paced the winners with 14 points, while Klavs Cavars amassed 10 points, 12 rebounds and 4 blocks. Rendijs Feikners and Ricards Melderis also had 10 apiece. Regimantas Miniotas collected 14 points plus 7 rebounds for Rytas, while Mantas Serksnas and Tautvydas Paliukenas each scored 7 in defeat. Teams traded baskets early. Serksnas hit a triple, and Miniotas a pair of layups to help Rytas to 8-12. But Verners Kohs and Rauls Aventis hit triples and put Riga in front, before a layup-plus-foul from Rytas’ Jokubas Svambaris ended the first quarter 14-15. Riga scored on the opening five possessions of the second period, including a triple from Feikners, making it 25-17. Miniotas scored twice for Rytas, but Ervins Meznieks started another Riga’s run during which Feikners hit a jumper and a triple, and Lomazs beat the halftime buzzer with a fastbreak layup, giving Riga 40-27 halftime lead. After the break, Melderis and Lomazs opened up 47-29 lead. Miniotas, Paliukenas and Aistis Pilauskas hit triples for Rytas, but Kohs hit from downtown on the other end, and with help from Cavars and Avenitis kept Riga up 57-43 after three quarters. Allowing only one basket in more than five minutes to start the fourth quarter, Riga kept the lead safe. Tomas Zdanavicius scored a basket-plus-free throw for Lietuvos Rytas, but Riga did not allow any drama at the end.