It was the third victory in a row for Vilnius, while Panevėžys experienced their first failure after five consecutive victories.
“The only positive thing from this match is the victory and the celebration of this victory by our fans. They must have liked the match, “Ryto” coach G. Žibėnas testified after the confrontation. – As a team, we did not take anything from this duel, we did not improve in any way. The best pitchers of the opponents who wanted to throw, they did, we didn’t stop them. And we were just lucky in this match.”
Throughout the match, the leading team changed very often, and with just a few seconds left, Panevėžys led first 91:85, then by three points 91:88.
However, Gediminas Oreliks received an unsportsmanlike foul after his team’s unsuccessful attack, Kendale McCullum converted two penalties 90:91 and the Vilnius team had 13 seconds for the last attack.
K. McCullum drew a foul at the last second and got back to the free throw line. The American scored both shots – 92:91, the Panevėžys team failed to mount a productive attack within 0.8 seconds after the one-minute break, and the home team triumphed.
“As for why we allowed the opponents to throw, it can be said that we behaved like an immature team,” said the “Ryto” coach.
– Vilnius club allowed the opponents to escape in the first half. What are the reasons for this? G. Žibėnas was asked.
– Sometimes I want to hide something, sometimes I don’t, but this time I have to say that the team had a very bad practice on Friday. We brought that training to the first half. Nothing new…
I was not satisfied with the faces of the players during that training session. I think there is no need to comment further. We only have this LKL championship: there is no more Champions League and we have to devote everything to LKL – all the important matches.
– Was this supposed to be Ryto’s last attack?
“Marcus Foster should have gotten the ball and we should have taken him out for a shot.” If not caught, then Kendale McCullum had to rush.
– Were you confident that Kendale McCullum would score those two decisive penalties?
– I was convinced. He had previously scored two penalties. I was convinced.
– You played the end of the match as if from notes.
– In order to achieve something important, a mixture of good character and ambition is needed. Character or so-called efforts are not enough.
This year LKL is really stronger, so there must be a dash of ambition. The way we defended today was hair-raising.
– This time there was a lot of opposition in the arena. Can you say that it continues since last season’s LKL final?
– Let’s leave that antagonism to the fans, and that fan antagonism, I think, decorates every arena. And let’s leave that fan antagonism to the arena security staff.