Two-time ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT champion and host side Zalgiris Kaunas scored the first 11 points of the game and never looked back in grabbing a comfortable 47-89 victory over USK Future Stars Prague in Group A. Martynas Echodas led the way for Zalgiris with 21 points and 10 rebounds while Laurynas Birutis added 13 points and 13 rebounds and Arnoldas Kulboka chipped in with 17 points for Zalgiris, which won the title in 2003 and 2007 and improved to 1-0. USK Future Stars dropped to 0-1 in the group despite 15 points and seven rebounds from Krystof Chaloupka while Ondrej Sehnal had 13 points, four rebounds and five assists.

Echodas scored four points and Kulboka nailed a three-pointer in an 0-11 start for the home team. Sehnal finally got USK Future Stars on the board after more than three minutes and Filip Petruzela made it 4-11. Echodas continued his strong start with a three-point play and another layup for nine points in the first five minutes and a 4-18 Zalgiris lead. Birutis threw down a dunk to extend the lead to 6-22 and Martynas Varnas’s basket increased the margin to 17 points at 9-26. After Sehnal and David Zikla scored, Justas Klimavicius knocked down a triple to put Zalgiris up 13-30. Sehnal increased his point total to nine points in the quarter with the final score of the period, leaving USK Future Stars down 15-30 after 10 minutes. Zikla opened the second quarter with two baskets and Chaloupka trimmed the deficit to 21-30. But Kulboka sparked a 3-17 Zalgiris surge with seven points in opening a 24-47 cushion. Petr Janda snapped a 3:21 minute scoreless stretch and Vojtech Nalevanko had the margin down to 28-49 before Augustas Zilinskas and Matas Andruskevicius both made two free throws as the Lithuania side was up 28-53 at intermission.

Kulboka opened the second half with a free throw and Lauryna Beliauskas made it 28-56. Sehnal and Petruzela trimmed the margin to 32-57 but Varnas and Echodas both threw down dunks in an 0-7 spurt to increase the lead to 32 points – 32-64. After Sehnal scored to snap a three-minute scoreless stretch, Chaloupka nailed two three-pointers and Jakub Tuma also hit from long range to cut the deficit to 23 points, 43-66. The lead was 43-68 after 30 minutes. Kulboka’s free throws to start the fourth quarter were matched by two from Tuma before Echodas scored three straight baskets - the last two power dunks for a 45-76 advantage. Chaloupka scored to make it 47-76 with 6:10 minutes left but USK Future Stars would not score the rest of the way while Birutis scored four points in the closing 0-13 run.