{"id":8875,"date":"2025-12-24T00:17:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T22:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rytasvilnius.lt\/en\/?p=8875"},"modified":"2026-07-03T17:46:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T14:46:27","slug":"the-j-walker-and-j-harding-tandem-helped-rytas-start-the-citadele-kmt-quarterfinals-with-a-solid-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rytasvilnius.lt\/en\/news\/the-j-walker-and-j-harding-tandem-helped-rytas-start-the-citadele-kmt-quarterfinals-with-a-solid-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"The J. Walker and J. Harding tandem helped Rytas start the Citadele KMT quarterfinals with a solid performance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">All match-ups have now begun the Citadele Karaliaus Mindaugas Cup (Citadele KMT) quarterfinal stage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Rytas Vilnius secured a convincing victory in the first game, defeating \u0160iauliai 97-82 (32-25, 27-17, 19-24, 19-16) on the road.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">The second game of the series will take place on January 15 in the capital. As a reminder, the team with the better aggregate point difference will advance to the Citadele KMT Final Four.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">At the start of the match, the hosts kept pace and took a 9-7 lead. Art\u016bras Gudaitis and Jordan Walker regained the lead (11-9), but Cedric Henderson scored twice in a row to make it 14-11. The first quarter remained high-scoring and intense, though Rytas eventually began to pull away (27-21). After the first ten minutes, Rytas was ahead 32-25.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Daniel Baslyk reduced his team&#8217;s deficit (28-32), but Simas Luko\u0161ius and the imports responded with a run that pushed the lead to double digits (43-28). Rytas worked to maintain their advantage (48-31), even as shots from Siim-Sander Vene and Vaidas Kariniauskas gave the hosts a boost (36-48). Nevertheless, by halftime, the capital club led 59-42.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rytas Starts Citadele KMT With An Away Win | Highlights | December 23, 2025\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kCp3JyDMgA4?start=1&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Despite \u0160iauliai attempting to close the gap with long-range shots (48-61), Gytis Masiulis, Ignas Sargi\u016bnas, and Jordan Walker stabilized the situation for Rytas (68-50). The hosts refused to surrender and stayed in the fight (59-72), eventually cutting the deficit to single digits (66-75). It took a Jordan Walker three-pointer to restore the double-digit lead for the visitors (78-66).<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">There was still plenty of time left. Although Rytas seemed to have control (85-68), Dovydas Roman\u010denko and Siim-Sander Vene both hit triples, and Dayvion McKnight added a free throw (76-85). A technical foul was called on the Rytas bench, while Cedric Henderson continued to shrink the gap (79-85). With less than 6 minutes remaining, Kay Bruhnke joined the three-point barrage, and Jerrick Harding converted his free throws, making the visitors&#8217; situation stable again (90-79). \u0160iauliai could not bring the intrigue back any further.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">With a couple of minutes remaining, technical fouls were assessed to Cedric Henderson and Ignas Sargi\u016bnas, and later to head coach Giedrius \u017dib\u0117nas.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Playing his first game of the season, Siim-Sander Vene scored 8 points, grabbed 1 rebound, dished out 2 assists, and recorded 6 efficiency points in 16 minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Jordan Walker was the standout performer for Rytas, scoring 25 points, providing 10 assists, and recording 31 efficiency points. Jerrick Harding contributed 23 points.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">\u0160iauliai: Cedric Henderson 15, Oskaras Pleikys 14 (9 reb), Dayvion McKnight 11 (5 reb, 7 ast), Dovydas Roman\u010denko 10, Siim-Sander Vene 8.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Rytas: Jordan Walker 25 (5\/10 3PT, 10 ast, 31 eff), Jerrick Harding 23, Gytis Masiulis 16 (3\/4 3PT), Art\u016bras Gudaitis 13 (10 reb).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jordan Walker Leads Rytas to Citadele KMT Win with 31 Efficiency | Highlights | Dec 23, 2025\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8SU52OawjhI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All match-ups have now begun the Citadele Karaliaus Mindaugas Cup (Citadele KMT) quarterfinal stage. Rytas Vilnius secured a convincing victory in the first game, defeating \u0160iauliai 97-82 (32-25, 27-17, 19-24, 19-16) on the road. The second game of the series will take place on January 15 in the capital. As a reminder, the team with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8876,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[83,85],"class_list":["post-8875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rytas","tag-jerrick-harding","tag-jordan-walker"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The J. Walker and J. Harding tandem helped Rytas start the Citadele KMT quarterfinals with a solid performance - Vilniaus \u201eRYTAS\u201c<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/rytasvilnius.lt\/en\/news\/the-j-walker-and-j-harding-tandem-helped-rytas-start-the-citadele-kmt-quarterfinals-with-a-solid-performance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The J. Walker and J. Harding tandem helped Rytas start the Citadele KMT quarterfinals with a solid performance - Vilniaus \u201eRYTAS\u201c\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"All match-ups have now begun the Citadele Karaliaus Mindaugas Cup (Citadele KMT) quarterfinal stage. Rytas Vilnius secured a convincing victory in the first game, defeating \u0160iauliai 97-82 (32-25, 27-17, 19-24, 19-16) on the road. The second game of the series will take place on January 15 in the capital. As a reminder, the team with [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/rytasvilnius.lt\/en\/news\/the-j-walker-and-j-harding-tandem-helped-rytas-start-the-citadele-kmt-quarterfinals-with-a-solid-performance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Vilniaus \u201eRYTAS\u201c\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-23T22:17:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-03T14:46:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/rytasvilnius.lt\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/12\/BC-siauliai-nuotrauka.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1654\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/rytasvilnius.lt\/en\/news\/the-j-walker-and-j-harding-tandem-helped-rytas-start-the-citadele-kmt-quarterfinals-with-a-solid-performance\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/rytasvilnius.lt\/en\/news\/the-j-walker-and-j-harding-tandem-helped-rytas-start-the-citadele-kmt-quarterfinals-with-a-solid-performance\/\",\"name\":\"The J. 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