The first semi-final of Baltic Basketball League Final Four in Kaunas saw reigning champions Zalgiris taking on Ventspils. The hopes of Latvian side to produce an upset faded away as the winner was clear already in the second quarter. A dominant performance on both ends of the court helped Zalgiris secure a thrashing victory 108-55.
Zalgiris was tearing apart Ventspils’ defence right from the start. Latvians weren’t able to provide an equal response.
A crushing 33-point lead at the half time left no doubts on who’s going to be victorious. The players of Ventspils weren’t able to come any closer and eventually seemed to have lost any motivation as the gap continued increasing.
Seven players finished the game in double digits for Zalgiris. Marcus Brown was the top performer with 21 points making above 70% of his shots (3/4 2pts, 5/7 3pts).
Mantas Kalnietis had the best index ranking of 28 though. Lithuanian national team member had 14 points, 8 assists and 3 steals.
All the efforts of Brandon Hunter and Akselis Vairogs were in vain as Venstpils simply wasn’t on par with the hosts.
Yet another classic BBL final is predicted for tomorrow as Lietuvos Rytas faces VEF Riga in the second semi-final.
This is the first time that Lithuanian giants didn’t participate in BBL regular season due to a large number of games in other competition. Zalgiris and Rytas joined BBL only in quarter-finals.
