LTU - Gecevicius to the fore as Lietuvos Rytas edge Zalgiris

VILNIUS (LKL) – As dramatic ends to the season go, Lithuania is having a doozy in its LKL Finals with the two giants in the country squaring off for the last title of the season.
 
A player itching to get his chance with Lithuania’s national team at the FIBA World Championship, Martynas Gecevicius of Lietuvos Rytas, did his chances of travelling to Turkey no harm with a three-point shooting eruption in Monday Game’s 3 to lead the Vilnius club past Zalgiris Kaunas, 83-81.
 
Having lost Game 1 at home in Vilnius, Lietuvos Rytas followed up their 75-64 Game 2 triumph in Zalgiris with a heart-stopping victory back in front of their own fans.
 
Gecevicius drilled five of seven shots from long range and finished with 28 points.
 
“Martynas is our key player and the team leader, who we can always rely on,” said Lietuvos Rytas coach Rimas Kurtainitis.
 
There was plenty of drama beforehand with the Lithuanian media speculating that Zalgiris’ club president Vladimir Romanov had decided to remove Darius Maskoliunas as coach.
 
He was on the bench, however, as Lietuvos scraped a narrow victory.
 
Lietuvos Rytas seemed to have a stranglehold on proceedings at half-time when they held a commanding 47-28 lead and the advantage ballooned to 50-30 early in the second half after a three-pointer by Lithuania international Arturas Jomantas.
 
The hosts allowed Zalgiris to fight back, however.
 
Tidas Klimavicius, who like Gecevicius was recently named in Lithuania’s preliminary squad for the FIBA World Championship, made a lay-up to cap an 11-0 that made it 50-41 in favor of Lietuvos Rytas.
 
The next big run saw Zalgiris reel off 11 straight points at the beginning of the fourth quarter as they pulled to within 64-62.
 
The visitors finally managed to knot the contest at 65-65 on Marcus Brown’s three-ball with 3:50 remaining and they went in front after another Klimavicius lay-up.
 
A pair of Simas Buterlevicius free-throws for Lietuvos Rytas tied the game with 2:59 to play and following their blocked shot of a Mantas Kalnietis attempt, the home side went to the other end and got a three-pointer from Igor Milosevic to go back in front at 70-67 for good with 2:18 to play.
 
Arturas Jomantas and Gecevicius then took over, scoring 12 of Lietuvos Rytas’ last 13 points.
 
Zalgiris had an opportunity to pull level or go ahead at the end after Donatas Zavackas made just one of two free-throws with six seconds remaining for Lietuvos Rytas, but veteran Dainius Salenga’s shot from inside the arc at the buzzer stayed out.
 
Game 4 is on Thursday in Kaunas.
 
FIBA