LAT - Zalgiris, Lietuvos romp into Baltic League Final

RIGA (Baltic League Final Four) - Zalgiris Kaunas and Lietuvos Rytas will meet in a Baltic League Lithuanian title showdown after rolling up big wins at the competition's final four on Friday.

Zalgiris won 105-72 over Siauliai, and Lietuvos followed that up with a 99-75 mauling of Ventspils.

Zalgiris coach Rimantas Grigas was almost lost for words.

"It is hard to comment on the game in which one of the teams won with a huge margin," he said. "We played a good game."

Paulius Jankunas, the Lithuanian international, started the opening spurt with a dunk after catching a neat pass from De Juan Collins, who then scored on a lay-up.

Arturas Masiulis followed with a lay-up and dunk, and then the game's leading scorer Tanoka Beard - he finished with 20 points - added a basket and a pair of free throws before Jankunas added another score.

The result put them into an all-Lithuanian final against Lietuvos Rytas, 99-75 winners over hosts Ventspils.

Beard said: "We needed this game to get into a rhythm after five or six days without competitive basketball.

"We played very well as a team and I'm satisfied with our performance.

"Siauliai depends on three-pointers and today they did not score as well as they could. They are able to score 40-50% from three point range but they managed only 26% (six of 23)."

As for the other leading international players in the Zalgiris line-up who are likely to play at the EuroBasket in Spain, Croatia's Marko Popovic buried four of eight shots from the arc and finished with 13 points.

Mantas Kalnietis, whose place in the Lithuania team is uncertain despite his terrific play at last summer's FIBA World Championship, the point guard had five points and a couple of steals.

In the other game, Tomas Delininkaitis and Joao Paolo Batista each had 18 points for Lietuvos.

Siauliai face Ventspils in the third/fourth place game on Saturday before Lietuvos and Zalgiris meet for the title.

Jeff Taylor
FIBA