The Baltic League regular season came to a close on Tuesday with Zalgiris Kaunas and Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius conquering the first two place in the Division I table. Zalgiris finished with a 9-1 record after defeating Ventspils 92-78 in the main fixture of the league on Saturday. ULEB Cup finalists L. Rytas beat Barons/LMT 98-72 before suffering a surprise loss to Siauliai 87-80 to finish 7-3 and to advance directly to the Final Four in Riga, Latvia, on April 20 and 21. Third and fourth placed Ventspils (5-5) and Siauliai (4-6) advance to the playoffs quarterfinals where they will face, respectively, the winners between Barons and Kalev Tallinn, first placed of Division II; and between ASK Riga and Valmiera, second placed of Division II. Also on Tuesday, Travis Reed amassed 24 points and 12 rebounds to help Kalev Tallinn edge Sakalai 75-73.
A 23-12 second period sparked Zalgiris to a 48-34 margin at halftime, enough to maintain safe cushion till the game was over. Tanoka Beard led six Zalgiris scorers in double figure by amassing 18 points and 9 rebounds. Marko Popovic added 13, Jonas Maciuls 12, Paulius Jankunas 11 and Marcelinho Machado and Loren Woods bagged 10 apiece. Dusan Jelic posted a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds for Ventspils, while Justin Love tallied 13 and Eddie Shannon 12. On Tuesday night, Siauliai climbed back to fourth place in the Division I table by scoring an amazing 87-80 success over ULEB Cup finalists Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius behind 18 points by Arvydas Cepulis. The hosts built a comfortable 46-29 advantage at halftime and never looked back. L. Rytas got 15 points from Joao Batista, 12 from Roberts Stelmahers and 11 from Mindaugas Lukauskis. L. Rytas topped Barons/LMT on the strength of a strong second half. Marjonas Petravicius led the way with 19 points, Matt Nielsen added 13, Stelmahers 12 and Andrius Slezas 11.