Baltic League, Final Four, semifinals: April 25, 2008
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A pair of familiar rivals will again decide the Baltic League title between them after Zalgiris Kaunas and Lietuvos Rytas registered semifinal wins in opening night of the competition's Final Four on Friday in Siauliai, Lithuania. The four-year-old Baltic League has found the signature teams from Lithuanian in its title game each and every season so far, with Zalgiris having won the first and Lietuvos Rytas the last two. In one semifinal on Friday, high-octane offense lifted Zalgiris to a 100-82 victory over ASK Riga of Latvia. Zalgiris was largely unstoppable inside the three-point arc, making 69.7% of its two-point shots (23-for-33). Marcus Brown did the job from outside, however, hitting 4 of 4 triples on the way to 18 points as high scorer for the winners. L. Rytas had it a little tougher after falling behind early to Barons/LMT of Latvia, but used great defense in the middle quarters to prevail easily, 89-73. Chuck Eidson had 16 points and Marinojas Petravicius 15 for L. Rytas. The final and third place games are to be played on Saturday, also in Siauliai.
It was a close first quarter until Brown's 5 points in a row sparked a 9-0 run that kept Zalgiris rolling to a 29-23 lead after 10 minutes. Aerick Sanders and Curtis Millage pumped points and life back nto ASK, which went ahead 35-36 midway through the second quarter. Zalgiris responded with a 10-0 run and kept pushing the advantage behind good scoring by Paulius Jankunas to 56-41 at the half. A quiet re-start after the break ended with a burst of scoring in which Jonas Maciulis and Brown stuck triples as the Zalgiris advantage topped 20 points at 66-45. It was everything ASK could do to make it look respectable the rest of the way. Jankunas added 14 points for Zalgiris, DeJuan Collins 13, Maciulis and Goran Jurak 11 each. ASK got 15 points each from Millage and Sandis Valters.
Barons leapt to early leads behind the good shooting of veterans Danius Adomaitis and Armands Skele, not to mention young center Kaspars Berzins. Barons was up 4-14 when L. Rytas followed Kenan Bajramovic, Eidson and Matt Nielsen back into the game, although Barons still led 17-21 afer a quarter. Jared Jordan finally put L. Rytas in front early in the second quarter. By the time a Mindaugas Lukauskis three-pointer made it 33-23, L. Rytas had a 29-9 run complete, as well as control of the game. Barons got as close again as 42-36 at halftime, after which L. Rytas came out with a 13-2 blast to finish the suspense. Arturas Jomantas added 12 points and Lukauskis 11 for Zalgiris, while Berzins led Barons with 16.
| Final Four in Siauliai, Lithuania - semifinals |
| Record | Team | Game 1 | | 1 | Lietuvos Rytas (1) | 89 | | 0 | Barons/LMT (4) | 73 | | 1 | Zalgiris Kaunas (2) | 100 | | 0 | ASK Riga (3) | 82 |
| Final Four games | | Game 1 | Lietuvos Rytas vs. Barons/LMT - semifinal | 89-73 | April 25 | | Game 1 | Zalgiris Kaunas vs. ASK Riga - semifinal | 110-82 | April 25 | | Game 2 | Barons/LMT vs. ASK Riga - 3rd place | - | April 26 | | Game 2 | Lietuvos Rytas vs. Zalgiris - Final | - | April 26 |
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