Lietuvos Rytas overpowers Ostend to claim eighthfinals spot

In a do-or-die game to survive and advance to the eighthfinals, Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius downed 111-83 Telenet Ostend at Siemens Arena to finish in second place in Group L with a 3-3 record. The result also eliminated the Belgian champs, who completed their Last 32 campaign with a 2-4 record. Rytas used an early 23-7 run to take a comfortable 27-12 margin late in the first quarter and never looked back. The home team completed an amazing first half performance by scoring 14 of their 18 two-point shots and 6 of 10 attempts from long distance. Late in the third quarter, Ostend tried to come back, but immediately the hosts answered with 8 points in a row to ice game and seal the qualification. Gediminas Orelik led the way by drilling 19 points with a perfect 7-of-7 two-point shooting for Rytas. Martynas Gecevicius chipped in 18 points and 7 assists. Billy Baron and Antanas Kavaliauskas drained 15 points apiece, while Ksistof Lavrinovic added 10. Wes Wilkinson netted 14 points for Ostend, Jared Berggren posted 13, Dusan Djordjevic 11 and Jean Salumu 10 in defeat.

Jean Salumu completed a three-point-play for a 4-5 advantage for the visitors before an outstanding offensive performance by the home team, led by Gecevicius and Orelik with 7 points apiece, created a 27-12 advantage with two minutes left in the quarter. John Prince’s dunk made it 27-16, but Gecevicius reached double figures individually by beating the buzzer from downtown for a 31-16 cushion. Baron extended the difference to 37-18 with a three-pointer and Mike Moser made it a 20-point game. Wilkinson posted back-to-back triples for the guests, but Mindaugs Lukauskis also hit from downtown and made it 50-26. Prince and Berggren tried an answer for Ostend before Lavrinovic and Orelik fixed the score at 61-39 at halftime.

Late in the third quarter, Ostend tried to come back and a 6-1 final run brought them closer them within 79-66 through three quarter thanks to consecutive jumpers by Prince and Niels Marnegrave. Early in the last quarter, back-to-back threes by Baron and a layup posted by Orelik stopped the visitors in their tracks and gave another large advantage, 89-68, to Rytas. The margin stayed around 20 points with Adas Juskevicius scoring from three-point range to push Rytas into triple digits. Dusan Djordjevic fixed the final score for Ostend.