Zalgiris Kaunas started strong in the Vilagarcia Cup, the U-20 spanish tournament that will be held in Vilagarcia de Arousa from today till Saturday. The lithuanian squad crashed serbians of Mega Vizura (69-93) with Zygimantas Janavicius ('89) as the scoring leader. The guard, currently loaned to Aisciai, finished with 22 points (7/11 FG) in 27 minutes. His teammate Mantas Kadzevicius ('91) -also from Aisciai- nailed 17 points, pulled down 4 rebounds and dished 3 assists, while Adomas Drungilas ('90) finished as the lithuanian with more valoration (29): 15 points, 9 boards, 4 steals and 4 blocks. For Mega Vizura Nemanja Arnautovic ('90), who signed some days ago for Buducnost, scored 20 with 4/8 behind the arc and Nemanja Jaramaz ('91) -gold last U-18 EC- made a complete game with 11 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. 115-41 was the difference of valoration between both teams.
Eurohopes contacted Kadzevicius -at the pic- after the game: "The keys? I think that first of all it was the good defense we made and also that we fought very hard". About their goal in the tournament the guard added that "I think we all should improve ourselves and of course on our mind is just a first place".
Finally russians of Dynamo Moscow couldn't travel to Spain and ukranians of Budivelnyk (leaders in ukranian senior league) are their substitutes, so serbians of FMP Zeleznik made their debut against them with a 74-61 win. In a very close game the 19-10 of last quarter and the difference in the rebound-factor (49-24) decided the winner. Milan Milovanovic ('91) led the victory with 21 points and 12 rebounds, while Nikola Markovic ('89) added 16 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals. at ukranian side Ivan Bilytskyi ('89) nailed 11 with 3/9 threes.
In the last game of this first day DKV Joventut beat Mega Vizura (59-56) even the 6-22 of the second quarter. The greens recovered with a 26-7 in the last 10'. Youngster Fernando Cerqueira ('93) -golden boy in Kaunas last summer- made a buzzer-beater. Dutch forward Max Van Schaik ('91) also made a good job for the winners with 18 points (4/9 threes) and 6 rebounds. Russian Dimitry Flis -borned in 1984!- added 9 and 7 rebounds, while argentinian Federico Aguerre -borned in 1988- added 7 points, 8 rebounds and 5 blocks. For serbians Stefan Balmazovic ('89) finished as their best scorer with 17 and 3/5 threes.
P.D.: The tournament is an under-20 competition, but with exceptions like Aguerre or Flis. There are more, but we'll forget that.
Photo: Martynas Musteikis
