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This week the final four of the National Basketball League (NKL – VIKINGLOTTO) will take place, in which the Marijampolė “Sūduva-Mantinga” team will have the most experience.
Up to six basketball players from Marijampolė have played in the NKL – VIKINGLOTTO final four, and Aurimas Kieža and Tautvydas Kliučinykas, who participated in the four final four, have the most experience.
Both played in the decisive battles of the season with the Marijampolė team in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019, and in 2017 they defeated Neptūnas-Akvaservis of Klaipėda in the final series.
This duo enjoyed first place in the quartet at the end of 2016 and 2019.
At that time, Rokas Stankevičius, Žygimantas Šimonis, Tomas Galeckas and Edvinas Jezukevičius played two finals in the last four. Stankevičius with “Sūduva-Mantinga” became the league champion in 2016, and Šimonis and Jezukevičius with the club won the title in 2019.
Sūduva-Mantinga coach Povilas Šakinis coached the team in the last four of his career once, when in 2019 he ranked third with Telšiai.
Sūduva-Mantinga Semifinal on Thursday at 7pm will compete with Jonava’s CBet, and there are three basketball players on this team who have played in the NKL Final Four – VIKINGLOTTO.
They are Aurimas Urbonas, Ignas Labutis and Darius Tarvydas.
Aurimas Urbonas played in the four finalists in 2016 (3rd place) and 2019 (1st place), Ignas Labutis – 2015 (3rd place), 2016 (1st place) and 2018 (4th place).
In 2012, Darius Tarvydas ranked second out of the four finalists, and in 2014, in the final with 27 utility points, Mažeikius led the victory against Trakai.
CBet Virginijus coach Šeškus won the NKL – VIKINGLOTT title with Prienai “Rūdupis” in 2009, but then a series was played in the final.
In the second semi-final on Thursday from 4 pm Vytis and Telšiai from Šakiai will play.
Erikas Kučiauskas has six basketball players who played in the last four of his army. Paulius Beliavičius, Marijus Užupis, Aurelijus Pukelis and Šarūnas Vingelis participated in the decisive NKL – VIKINGLOTT fights twice. In 2018, this quartet with Vytis ranked 3rd, and in 2019 it remained in second place.
In 2019, Karolis Kokoška and Paulius Semaška also played in the last four and defended the honor of Vytis.
Towards the end of the regular season, Mindaugas Stašys, who complemented Vytis, with Klaipėda’s Neptūnu-Akvaservis, played two finals and won both.
Brothers Darjušas and Kšištofas Lavrinovičiai have yet to play in the NKL – VIKINGLOTTO Final Four, but both have played several important matches during their careers.
Club Šakiai coach Erikas Kučiauskas also coached the team in 2019, when she landed in the final four of Marijampolė’s “Sūduvai-Mantingas”.
Vytis rival team Telšiai will play in the last four for the second time in club history, and in 2019 six members of the current composition participated in the most important battles with the team: Ovidijus Kaminskis, Ignas Razutis, Mindaugas Norkus, Deividas Rasys, Vilius Pocius and Laurynas Kaveckis. Then the team took third place.
Razutis is the only Telšiai basketball player to have played in the last four more than once. In 2014, he ranked first with Mažeikiai.
Telšiai coach Rytis Vaišvila ranked first in the last four with the Klaipėda club in 2015, and in 2018 and 2019 with Marijampolė Sūduva-Mantinga he ranked fourth and first, respectively.
The NKL – VIKINGLOTTO final four will take place from April 1 to 3.
Calendar of the four finalists:
Thursday:
4 pm: Šakiai “Vytis” – “Telšiai” (live on Delfi TV)
7 pm Jonava CBet – Marijampolė Sūduva-Mantinga (live on Delfi TV)
Friday:
6:00 pm: Match for 3 seats (live on Delfi TV)
Saturday:
7.30pm: match for first place (live on Info TV)
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