By Aris Barkas
Zalgiris Kaunas proved once again that it has the upper hand against its main opponent from Lithuania, Lietuvos Rytas. The team from Kaunas beat the team from Vilnius 74-70 and won the Baltic League final for the fifth time in its history and third straight.
Lietuvos tried to hung on until the end, but the best that they could do was to cut the final deficit to four points. Zalgiris was leading the scoreboard after the second quarter and never looked back. The most curious thing about the final was Lietuvos coach Alexander Dzikic’s decision not to use regular starter Renaldas Seibutis in the game because he was… tired. “You have to ask the coach about that”, was the reaction of the player after the game.
Lietuvos Rytas – Zalgiris Kaunas 70-74
LIETUVOS: Rasic 7, Babrauskas 9, Roberts, Jomantas 8, Valanciunas 4, Rice 20 (3/4 3p.), Samardziski 15, Katelynas 2, Redikas 2, Vilmantas
ZALGIRIS: Kalnietis 19, Jankunas 5, Javtokas 7, Delininkaitis 5, Lipkevicius 2, Popovic 11, Salenga, Kuzminskas 11, Klimavicius 6, Rakovic 6, Janavicius