G.Žibėnas, who lost for the first time, put his finger on the players’ ego: “Today we don’t respect each other”

Pasvalys 3 seconds after Jahenns Manigat’s fateful penalty shoot-out. He snatched the victory in Vilnius 88:87 and ended the “Rytas” 14-win streak in a row.

12 of those achievements were made by Vilnius residents under the leadership of G.Žibėnas, but this time the specialist had to look up the reasons for the failure in a press conference.

“First of all, we deserve the victory of the Milk Stars. They deserved it because they played as a team, emphasized G. Žibėnas. – If we do not play as a team, then these press conferences may be more frequent. As the game starts so well. “We refuse to be consistent. We don’t like to play every game solid for some reason. Today there was too much ego in the team, we didn’t play as a team and they penalized us.”

Rytas started the match 14: 0, had a double-digit lead in the third quarter, but ultimately fell at a decisive moment. What causes such an increase?

“I don’t know the little details, but today, as a team, we only made one correct and sensible foul. Say something. We have 16 chances to survive the game with such fouls, and today we committed one of those fouls. It shows a lot about our approach to this match and we may have a call at a very opportune time for us. There were more and more matches of this type that could have ended just as well, but somehow we survived. Perhaps it is a very good lesson, perhaps we will react correctly.

I hope the men react correctly because we play against a well-trained team, but, with all due respect, she doesn’t hit the ball like other teams push and we make 20 mistakes. Those errors are not forced, those errors are usually self-inflicted and then they return 32 points of the errors. And this is an image of the party, ”said G.Žibėnas.

Photo by Rokas Lukoševičius / 15min / Giedrius Žibėnas

Can this defeat respond to the team in the training process?

“I am not complaining about the team’s training in any way. The players work well and focus and focus properly, but today we don’t respect each other first and foremost because the faces weren’t what they should be. And so much ”, concluded the strategist.

In turn, Pieno Žvaigždės’ strategist Gediminas Petrauskas became the first coach of this team to beat Rytas twice in the same season. When asked about it, he also recalled his third victory.

Photo by Rokas Lukoševičius / 15min / Gediminas Petrauskas

“Three – a season ago we won a friendly match against them. Of course I’m kidding, thanks for the congratulations, – smiled G. Petrauskas. – The mood is really good after winning and finishing the” Morning “series of victories. As for the game, the first 5 minutes were very bad, both in attack and defense, and I would highlight the last three minutes of the second half. <...> However, I am very happy that I avoided that hole in the second half of the match, breathed on their backs for a long time and reconsidered the result at the same time. We are happy with the victory. “