{"id":8993,"date":"2026-02-21T21:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T19:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rytasvilnius.lt\/en\/?p=8993"},"modified":"2026-02-21T21:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T19:08:13","slug":"the-curse-is-broken-rytas-to-play-in-the-citadele-kmt-final-after-a-six-year-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rytasvilnius.lt\/en\/news\/the-curse-is-broken-rytas-to-play-in-the-citadele-kmt-final-after-a-six-year-break\/","title":{"rendered":"The Curse is Broken: Rytas to Play in the Citadele KMT Final After a Six-Year Break"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Rytas Vilnius broke the six-year Citadele King Mindaugas Cup (Citadele KMT) final curse in impressive style.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Giedrius \u017dib\u0117nas\u2019 men crushed Lietkabelis Panev\u0117\u017eys 106-89 (29:20, 27:17, 26:22, 24:30) and will play in the tournament final for the first time since 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">In the G. \u017dib\u0117nas era, this is the first Citadele KMT final for the Vilnius team. Previously, the capital&#8217;s club faltered three times in the semifinals and twice in the quarterfinals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">On Sunday, Rytas will face \u017dalgiris Kaunas for the trophy. Meanwhile, Lietkabelis faces a battle for bronze against Nept\u016bnas Klaip\u0117da. The Panev\u0117\u017eys basketballers have only failed to win a medal once\u2014in the very first edition of the tournament in 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Ignas Sargi\u016bnas had an amazing match, recording 29 points (3\/5 2PT, 7\/9 3PT, 2\/2 FT), 6 rebounds, and a performance index rating of 31.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">The American guard duo also looked solid\u2014Jerrick Harding (17 pts, 3 reb, 2 ast, 22 PIR) and Jordan Walker (22 pts, 2 reb, 3 ast, 23 PIR).<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">G. \u017dib\u0117nas played without Jacob Wiley and Simonas Luko\u0161ius.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Jamel Morris (16 pts) was the top scorer for the losing side. However, the most efficient player was not him, but Justas Furmanavi\u010dius (13 pts, 4 reb, 3 ast, 20 PIR).<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">The suspense in the semifinal did not last long. Already in the first quarter, I. Sargi\u016bnas was rampaging on the court; his teammates were also sinking long-range shots, and the Vilnius side felt comfortable after ten minutes\u201429:20.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">In the second quarter, Rytas&#8217; lead was already in double digits, but the Panev\u0117\u017eys side was still holding on. However, in the final twenty seconds, I. Sargi\u016bnas provided two highlights\u2014long-range shots that fired up the capital\u2019s fans just before the break\u201456:37.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">The picture on the court didn\u2019t change much in the third quarter. Rytas, coming out with more energy, was already enjoying themselves (66:38). Although Lietkabelis found the strength to reduce the deficit (57:75), the Vilnius team carried a more-than-solid lead into the final stretch\u201482:59.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">As time ticked away mercilessly, it didn&#8217;t look like Lietkabelis could pull off a miracle. After handling the formalities, Rytas ultimately advanced confidently into the tournament final.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><strong class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Rytas:<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\"> Ignas Sargi\u016bnas 29, Jordan Walker 22, Jerrick Harding 17, Gytis Masiulis 13, Art\u016bras Gudaitis and Kay Bruhnke 7 each.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><strong class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Lietkabelis:<\/span><\/strong><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\"> Jamel Morris 16, Justas Furmanavi\u010dius, Kristian Kullamae, Danielius Lavrinovi\u010dius, and Gabrielius Mald\u016bnas 13 each, Paulius Danusevi\u010dius 11.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rytas Vilnius broke the six-year Citadele King Mindaugas Cup (Citadele KMT) final curse in impressive style. Giedrius \u017dib\u0117nas\u2019 men crushed Lietkabelis Panev\u0117\u017eys 106-89 (29:20, 27:17, 26:22, 24:30) and will play in the tournament final for the first time since 2020. In the G. \u017dib\u0117nas era, this is the first Citadele KMT final for the Vilnius [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rytas"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Curse is Broken: Rytas to Play in the Citadele KMT Final After a Six-Year Break - 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-curse-is-broken-rytas-to-play-in-the-citadele-kmt-final-after-a-six-year-break\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Curse is Broken: Rytas to Play in the Citadele KMT Final After a Six-Year Break - Vilniaus \u201eRYTAS\u201c\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rytas Vilnius broke the six-year Citadele King Mindaugas Cup (Citadele KMT) final curse in impressive style. 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