Author: Raminta Kaminskaite

Photo: bc.lrytas.lt

Lietuvos rytas Vilnius had no problem at home containing the Latvian rival Valmiera and outshadowed the visitors 98:62.

Top scorers:

Lietuvos rytas: Jonas Valanciunas 19, Igor Milosevic 16, Steponas Babrauskas 12, Simas Buterlevičcus and Aron Baynes  - 11.

Valmiera: Daviin Davis 14, Sandis Amolinis, Juris Andzejevskis - 11, Timothy Crowell 10.

Valmiera  started the game well and appeared ready for a fight, they kept the same tempo later on. Midway through the first quarter, after a basket by D.Davis,  Valmiera led 10:9. The Latvians regained the control of the ball game and finished the lazy first quarter leading 17:15.

However, the situation changed substantially in the second period. The hosts had some runs in the second quarter and as a result built an advantage in double digits (31:21, 5min.).  It was hard to score a bucket for Valmiera and the difference between teams got bigger as the time went on.  Lietuvos Rytas led by 18 after the second quarter – 45:27.
 

Lietyvos Rytas increased its lead up to 20 points early in the third quarter, when Kenan Bajramovic nailed a shot - 47:27. MasterCard BBL leaders remained a huge lead and did not allow Valmiera  to bring the intrigue in this contest. As a result Lietuvos rytas built a monstrous 32 points lead in the middle of the third quarter  – 77:45.  Valmiera appeared to be in trouble on the offensive end and could not score any easy points. After third quarter the difference between both teams was still indecent – 68:37.






In the last quarter Lietuvos rytas  did not let the convincing victory out of reach and simply saved its huge advantage. Some of the deeper bench players had an opportunity to showcase their abilities. Poor field goal percentage didn't allow Valmiera to come back in this game and Lietuvos rytas crushed them with ease and with pleasure.