Galatasaray celebrates Euroleague berth in Vilnius!

Galatasaray celebrates in Vilnius

Galatasaray overcame Lietuvos Rytas 63-71 at Siemens Arena in Vilnius, Lithuania, to advance to the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Regular Season for the first time in club history. Galatasaray trailed early, but used a 2-13 run to take a 28-30 halftime lead and continued to add to it throughout the second half. Head coach Oktay Mahmuti’s men will play in Euroleague Group D with Asseco Prokom, FC Barcelona Regal, Montepaschi Siena, Unics Kazan and Union Olimpija. Preston Shumpert paced the Galatasaray attack with 14 points off the bench, Josh Shipp and Luksa Andric added 12 apiece and Jaka Lakovic tallied 10 points and 5 assists for the winners. Galatasaray last played the early rounds of the Euroleague in 1990, but had never advanced to group stage action. Renaldas Seibutas scored 11 first-quarter points for Rytas, but quieted after that and finished with 15. Goran Jeretin added 12 and Steponas Babrauskas had 10 in defeat. Rytas will compete in the Eurocup this season, a competition it won just two seasons ago.