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Panevėžys “Lietkabelis” became the first participant in the final of the Citadele King Mindaugas Cup (Citadele KMT).
In the second half, Nenad Chanak’s students separated from their rivals 84:73 (16:11, 30:23, 20:20, 18:19) defeated Juventus de Utena and secured a place in the final of the tournament on Sunday, where their opponents will be the winners of Kaunas “Žalgiris” and Klaipėda “Neptūnas “.
In the first 10 minutes, both teams tragically shot from distance: Juventus lost 6 triples, while Lietkabelis lost 7.
“Juventus” was much more intense and the only Mindaugas Kupšas found a way to score points and scored up to 7 of the 11 points he got.
Thanks to the efforts of M.Kupšas and Ignas Vaitkus, Juventus reduced the gap to 2 points at the start of the second half (18:20), but then Lietkabelis accelerated 11: 2 and already led 31:20. Towards the end of the quarter, Juventus stopped the rain for a bit, but the teams were still separated by a double-digit difference (46:34).
The biggest problem for Juventus was that M. Kupšas, who played 14 minutes and scored 14 points in the first two quarters, scored the fourth personal foul just before the end of the quarter.
After 20 minutes of play, M.Kupšas had scored 14 points for Juventus, Ž.Skučas added 8 and M.Runkauskas – 6.
In “Lietkabelis” D.Gagičius scored 12 points, P.Valinskas added 9 and K.Vinalesas – 8.
The basketball players of the Panevėžys team returned to the parquet without joking. After three double throws by Gabrielius Maldūnas and free throws by Vytenis Lipkevičius, he awarded 20 points – 54:34. The points of Vaidas Kariniauskas and Marius Runkauskas blew the lives of the residents of Utena, how much they melted their deficit – 44:58. Still, we couldn’t get any closer: before the deciding quarter of the match, the teams awarded the same 12 points (66:54).
Midway through the fourth quarter, Lietkabelis continued to keep control of the match in his hands – 75:60, but the spark was lit with Juventus’ 10-0 and intrigue revived three minutes later. However, the fifth foul by M. Kupšas and the points by V. Lipkevičius and Džordže Gagičius once again allowed the people of Panevėžys to feel calmer – 80:70. Utena’s people were no longer allowed to think about victory for the last two minutes and they won 84:73.
„Juventus “: M. Kupšas 24 (10/10 double, sixth room, 27 points), Žygimantas Skučas 11 (fifth room), M. Runkauskas 9, V. Kariniauskas 9 (ninth trans.).
Raincoat: J. Gagičius 18, K. Vinalesas (7th req., 6 res. Transfers, 19 points of use) and G. Maldūnas (6 req. Rooms, 22 points of use) after 14, P. Valinskas 12, V. Lipkevičius 10 (10th chamber), Margiris Normantas 8
The last two meetings between these teams ended with Lietkabelis victories: on October 24 last year, Lietkabelis won 78:76 and on January 13 this year – 100: 79.
However, after that defeat, Juventus had a fantastic stretch, winning seven victories in eight games and only in early February did they unexpectedly land at Šiauliai 87:92. Before the performance in the KMT semi-finals, Juventus defeated Prienai Cbet 94:91.
Lietkabelis had won four wins in a row from January 9-20, but then lost to Rytas and Dzūkija, reaching the KMT final four only after a difficult 108: 105 win against Šiauliai.
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