It marked a second consecutive win for the Lithuanian squad
Lietkabelis runs past Hamburg, 91-68
7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys clicked on all cylinders in beating the visiting Veolia Towers Hamburg 91-68 on Wednesday night. Registering its second straight win, Lietkabelis improved to 2-4 in Group B, while Hamburg dropped to 1-6 on the season, leaving it in last place.
Lietkabelis took control with an 11-2 run bridging the first and second quarters and never looked back. Mantas Rubstavicius led six scorers in double figures with 22 points, while Andrija Stipanovic shined with 11 points, 7 assists and 6 rebounds. Vytenis Lipkevicius also scored 11, while Martynas Varnas, Marko Pecarski and Oleksandr Kovliar each scored 10 in victory. Kur Kuath had 10 points for Hamburg.
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Hamburg got its offense going first, with Kenneth Ogbe and Osaro Rich each sinking a three-pointer to open 8-11 lead. But Stipanovic fueled the efforts of the hosts on both ends of the floor, first defensively, then scoring twice from close range, and also setting up a Varnas fastbreak dunk during a 6-0 run. A triple from Kovliar made it 19-15, but Reece had a three-point play for Hamburg while Leif Moeller and Niklas Wimberg each nailed a long jumper, tying the game. A three-point play from Grantas Vasiliauskas made it 24-21 after 10 minutes.
Rubstavicius single-handedly extended the margin to 32-23 in the first 3 minutes of the second quarter by scoring all the points in an 8-0 run, including a pair of three-pointers. Triples from Lipkevicius and his fastbreak layup extended the margin to 42-27 as Hamburg's offense struggled. Wimberg scored a second-chance basket, but Pecarski and Dovis Bickauskis made sure Lietkabelis took a 48-30 advantage, its biggest lead of the half, into halftime.
Ogbe started the second half with a three-pointer, but Rubstavicius and Stipanovic extended the margin some more and a basket from Pecarski made it 56-35. Hamburg was not going to simply go away, showing effort on defense, but Kuath was the only player managing to do some damage offensively before a triple from Moeller cut it to 58-42. Keondre Kennedy and Varnas traded three-pointers before back-to-back threes from Rubstavicius and Lipkevicius in the final 40 seconds of the quarter made it 70-47.
The margin remained in the 20s in the fourth, as Patrick Heckmann and Kovliar traded triples. Wimberg also had a three for the visitors, but Gabrielius Maldunas dunked on a fastbreak to make it 75-53. Kennedy, Brae Ivey and Ogbe scored for Hamburg, but only cutting it to 77-59 midway through the fourth. However, Rubstavicius and Varnas had back-to-back triples to fuel a 10-2 run as Lietkabelis celebrated its second victory in a row.