Rytas fends off Joventut, reaches first-place game

U18 Rytas Vilnius will face Lithuania rival U18 Zalgiris Kaunas for a ticket to the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Finals after Rytas reached the ANGT Kaunas first-place game with an 84-75 victory over U18 Joventut Badalona. Augustas Marciulionis collected 25 points, 4 rebounds, 7 assists and 11 fouls drawn for a performance index rating of 30 for Rytas, which won the continental title in 2012 and 2018. Andreas Kalogiros scored 17 points and Azoulas Tubelis picked up 14 points, 18 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and 4 blocks for a PIR of 36 for Rytas, which finished Group B with a 3-0 record. Joventut got 18 points from Adria Domenech while Zsombor Maronka had 14 points, Kriss Helmanis scored 11 points and Roger Marti contributed 10 points and 11 assists. But they were not enough as the Spanish side fell to 1-2 and will play in a third-place game.

Points were hard to come by in the opening minutes with Joventut only scoring from the foul line - five Domenech free throws for a 2-5 lead. Armandas Plintauskas nailed two three-pointers and Rytas was up 10-5. Joventut went more than 5 minutes before finally scoring a basket by Domenech and Maronka’s score put Joventut up 10-11. The next three baskets were lead changes and four points from Marciulionis had Rytas up 19-14 before Joventut made it 19-18 after 10 minutes. After Maronka hit the first five points of the second quarter for a 19-23 lead, Plintauskas nailed two triples to even the game 25-25. Joventut held Rytas scoreless for almost 4 minutes and Joel Juarez converted a three-point play in a 0-9 run to lead 25-34. Marciulionis responded with five points as Rytas was within 32-36 at the break. Rytas scored the first five points of the second half to reclaim the lead 37-36. Joventut punched back with a 4-10 run to move ahead 41-46. Rytas did not let the Spanish side get away though with Edgaras Preibys hitting a three-ball and Kalogiros draining two long balls to nose ahead 50-49. And the Lithuanian side was up 52-51 after 30 minutes. Rytas continued its hot outside shooting in the fourth with Marciulionis, Jokubas Rubinas and Preibys all hitting from long range and the lead was 61-54. Domenech cut the deficit to 62-60 but Marciulionis and Kalogiros were again on target from the outside and three more Marciulionis points had Rytas up 75-63 with under 3 minutes left. Rubinas’ basket made it 81-68 with 89 seconds to play and despite Joventut scoring six straight points to pull within 81-74 with 38 seconds remaining, the hole had been too big.