U18 Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius finished group play strong with a decisive 80-53 victory over U18 CFBB Paris having already secured a spot in the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Championship Game. Lietuvos Rytas took control of the game with an 18-0 run spanning the third and fourth quarters to end Group A with a 3-0 record. Marek Blazevic led the way for the 2012 continental champion with 15 points while Erikas Jermolajevas had 11 points. All 12 Lietuvos Rytas players scored and star Deividas Sirvydis picked up 3 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals as coach Arvydas Gronskis managed his players’ minutes thinking ahead to the title bout on Sunday morning at Stark Arena. The reigning champion CFBB got 18 points, 3 rebounds and 3 steals from Mathis Dossou Yovo and Essome Miyem added 10 points in the loss - CFBB’s third in three games.

Blazevic scored nine points as Lietuvos Rytas opened up a 15-4 lead early on. Lorenzo Thirouard had four points at the other end as CFBB used a 2-10 surge to get close at 17-14. And the score was 21-14 after 10 minutes. The Lithuanian team scored the first six points of the second quarter to make it 27-14 and the advantage was still 31-18. CFBB had another run with Dossou Yovo and Miyem both hitting four points in an 0-10 spurt to pull within 32-30. But the gap was 39-32 at the break.

Blazevic started the second half strong as well as the lead was 48-38 before a Thirouard three-pointer started a 2-9 run to make it 50-47. Lietuvos Rytas finished with the final nine points and led 59-47 after 30 minutes. The Vilnius power added the first nine points of the fourth quarter and the cushion was 68-47. Miyem finally got CFBB on the board after three minutes but the French side would not get closer than 17 points the rest of the way.