U18 Zalgiris Kaunas opened the defense of its Euroleague Basketball ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Qualifying Tournament – Kaunas title with a comfortable 56-88 victory over U18 Porsche Basketball Academy Ludwigsburg. Isaiah Hartenstein led the way for Zalgiris – the three-time winner of the ANGT Kaunas – with 21 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks. Gytis Masiulis collected 15 points in the Group A win while Arnas Velicka chipped in 11 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists and Ignas Sargiunas had 10 points. Ludwigsburg, which shot just 30 percent for the game and committed 22 turnovers, was paced by Cosmo Gruehn’s 15 points, 16 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal and 2 blocks while Jeferson Hiller added 10 points.

Masiulis scored 5 points as Zalgiris opened an 0-8 lead. Lawrence Mugagan scored Ludwigsburg’s first points but Velicka hit for 6 points in another 0-8 run to go up 2-16. Hiller’s three-pointer for the German side was followed by 6 straight Zalgiris points and Volodymyr Markovetskyy’s put-back extended the lead to 20 points - 7-27. The gap was 10-27 after 10 minutes. Zalgiris scored the first 7 points of the second quarter to push the advantage to 24 points – 10-34 – before Fekremariam Abraha’s free throw finally got Ludwigsburg on the board with 7:22 minutes left in the second. The German club began to score more consistently and Mugagan’s 2 free throws made it 19-37. But Lukas Uleckas answered with a three-pointer and Ludwigsburg could not cut the gap closer than 19 points over the rest of the half with Zalgiris up 25-45 at intermission.

Zalgiris started the second half with an 0-11 run to lead 25-56 while Ludwigsburg turned the ball over 5 times in the first 4 minutes before Gruehn finally got the team on the scoreboard with a three-point play. Moritz Baer followed with a basket and 2 Gruehn free throws trimmed it to 32-57. Markovetskyy basket re-established a 28-point lead, 34-62. And the margin was 38-64 after 30 minutes. Ludwigsburg did not give up and started the fourth quarter with an 8-1 run to trim the deficit to 46-65. After a three-pointer from Dziugas Slavinskas, the margin was cut to 50-68 with less than 5 minutes to play. But Hartenstein led a final spurt with 10 points in a 4-17 run to close the game.