AFTER A DRAMATIC END OF THE MATCH - A LOSS IN UTENA

Klaipėda, “Neptūnas” received its first setback in the 2015-2016 Lithuanian Basketball League (“Tete-a-Tete Casino-LKL”)championship - the players of Dainius Adomaitis lost to the local team “Juventus” on Thursday with a result of 66:69 (17:27, 22:20, 12:18, and 25:14).

The players from Klaipėda started the match poorly - fell behind 5:16 and lost the first 10 minutes 17:27. At the end of the match (17 seconds left) Daniel Ewing made a three-point shot, “Neptūnas” managed to catch up to a 3 point difference and recapture the intrigue; however, they did not have enough time or luck to shift the events in their favor.

“Juventus” - “Neptūnas” - 79:76 (27:17, 20:22, 18:12, and 14:25).

“Juventus”: Egidijus Dimša - 17 (8 rebounds), Rolandas Alijevas - 15, Spencer Butterfield - 13, Edgaras Želionis - 10 (8 rebounds), Arminas Urbutis - 8, Aidas Viskotas - 7, and Martynas Linkevičius 5 pts.

“Neptūnas”: Donatas Zavackas - 21, Jerai Grant - 15 (9 rebounds), Mindaugas Girdžiūnas - 8 (6 assists), Simas Galdikas - 7, Travis Bader - 6, Arvydas Šikšnius - 5, Daniel Ewing - 5, Martynas Mažeika - 5, Arnas Butkevičius - 4 pts.

Dainius Adomaitis (head coach of “Neptūnas”): “The main problem was how we started the match; that is, how we entered the game. I don’t think that the state of mind was problem; everyone yesterday during training was focused, it is just that some kind of psychological moment stumped us – everyone stepped out too tense. When uncontested, we have to make field goals and free throw shots… and that is psychology. We even lost the fight for rebounds 24:39, the opponents had more second chances. Utena proved once more that the LKL has become stronger. There are a lot of teams that are of the same level. It is difficult against any opponent. It is the start of the season and we are a new team; we have to work patiently. We have time to perfect our game, fix the mistakes”.

Antanas Sireika (head coach of “Juventus”): “The men played well. We played our game for two quarters, scored 48 points, defended well, but later we got a little tired, and we paused. If we can’t manage to score points, there’s nothing left - we have to defend. We won the fight for rebounds - it’s good that Edgaras Želionis, who is tall, joined us. Even so, this is great, even though we are not in the best shape.”

The next LKL match “Neptūnas” will play on October 11th, (Sunday) at 17:00 in Kaunas versus the Lithuanian champions - “Žalgiris” and on October 14th in “Švyturio Arena” the players of “Neptūnas” will start the Eurocup championship versus the mighty team Istanbul, “Galatasaray”.

The Eurocup tournament matches of “Neptūnas” both home and road games are going to be aired via LRT Culture Channel.

Having been placed in group F of the Eurocup tournament, “Neptūnas” will play two matches in October - a road game versus Jerusalem, “Hapoel” (October 21st) and at home versus Volgograd, “Krasny Oktyabr” (October 28th).

In November the players from Klaipėda await the match on a road game versus Nizhny Novgorod, “Nizhny Novgorod” (November 4th) and a match at home versus Athens, “AEK” (November 11th) and the second regular-season cycle match on a road game versus “Galatasaray” (November 18th), and a home match versus “Hapoel” (November 24th).

During the month of December the anticipated matches are versus “Krasny Okyabr” (December 2nd, in Russia), “Nizhny Novgorod” (December 9th, in Klaipėda) and Athens, “AEK” (December 16th, in a road game). With these matches the Eurocup tournament’s regular-season will come to an end. The best four teams out of six will advance to the next stage.