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This season marks the 10th anniversary for the Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius basketball club. Since the foundation of the club in 1997 until today Lietuvos rytas has celebrated a number of remarkable victories.Led by Sarunas Jasikevicius, Arvydas Macijauskas, Ramunas Siskauskas, Robertas Javtokas, and Simas Jasaitis Lietuvos rytas has produced some of the most recognizable athletes of European basketball.Please join us as we take a look back at a few of the more memorable moments in Lietuvos rytas history.Last season the Vilnius team swept their deadly rivals Zalgiris Kaunas in the finals of the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) as well as took away Zalgiris’ Baltic Basketball League (BBL) champions crown in the final four tournament. Earlier in the year Lietuvos rytas made its debut in the Euroleague and silenced all the sceptics by advancing to the “TOP 16†of the tournament.This was a second consecutive successful season. A year before Lietuvos rytas earned a spot in the Euroleague by winning the ULEB cup in a brilliant final game against Greece’s Makedonikos, 78:74.One of the most memorable moments in the history of Lietuvos rytas was the climax of the 2001-2002 season. Lietuvos rytas triumphed in the Northern European Basketball League (NEBL) when they beat the strongest Russian club Ural Great Perm. After this victory Lietuvos rytas was primed for a long run of championship calibre basketball and left no chance for Zalgiris Kaunas in the finals of the LKL. Of course this wasn’t the first title in LKL for Lietuvos rytas.In the franchise’s third year of existence in 2000 Lietuvos rytas broke through and won their first LKL Championship in four games over Zalgiris Kaunas which had been undefeated for 7 years.The same year Lietuvos rytas challenged the basketball giants from Bologna, Kinder. In the semi-final of the Saporta cup Lietuvos rytas beat the Italian team 70:60. However, Kinder took revenge on their home court, 83:71 and slipped into the final by only a two point margin.Lietuvos rytas was very close to winning the NEBL that year as well but lost in the final to CSKA Moscow.The 2000-2001 season started slowly for Lietuvos rytas which made its debut in the Suproleague. The team then engineered a great turnaround and catapulted into the playoffs where they were defeated by Efes Pilsen Istanbul.The NEBL competition of 2001 ended with a third place victory.The 2002-2003 season proved to be one of many ups and downs for the Lietuvos rytas players as they spent most of the year battling for the FIBA Champions cup. Vilnius’s team advanced all the way to the finals of the Conference North but dropped the last game to Unics Kazan. The eternal battle in the LKL ended in the six game series defeat by Zalgiris Kaunas.The 2003-2004 season was not the one Lietuvos rytas had hoped for as they again took 2nd place in the LKL. The debut in the ULEB cup ended in disappointment as Lietuvos rytas lost in the quarterfinals to Hapoel Jerusalem.This frustration helped the next year to achieve the biggest victory in the club’s history of international competition when they captured the ULEB cup.The 2006-2007 season is a significant milestone for Lietuvos rytas as the 10th anniversary season gets underway. The ULEB cup and FIBA EuropeCup Challenge winning coach Sharon Drucker stepped in as the head coach, but was replaced by Zmago Sagadin from Slovenia in mid-November. During the busy off-season Lietuvos rytas acquired a two-time Olympic bronze medal winner, European and Euroleague champion Eurelijus Zukauskas. In addition, Lietuvos rytas signed two NCAA superstars Andre Emmett from Texas Tech and Gonzaga’s JP Batista, among a few other newcomers. Over the summer, Tomas Delininkaitis and Mindaugas Lukauskis gained experience with the Lithuanian national team as well.Lietuvos rytas is ready for another impressive season and will look to continue their history-making legacy.ULEB Cup - The triumphApril 19, 2005 - this date became most exciting in Lietuvos Rytas club history.At that day Lietuvos Rytas won its first European title and wrote a new page in basketball history by beating Alfa Makedonikos 78-74 in the ULEB Cup Final in front of a sellout crowd of 6,500 at the Spiroudome in Charleroi, Belgium.More than two thousands Lithuanians including state president Valdas Adamkus and Vilnius mayor Art,,ras Zuokas congratulated the team.Lietuvos Rytas also earned the right to take part in the 2005--2006 Euroleague, as well as becoming the third ULEB Cup titlest after Pamesa Valencia and Hapoel Jerusalem.Tyrone Nesby and Simas Jasaitis led the winners with 16 points apiece while Robertas Javtokas had 14 for Rytas and became the MVP of the game by adding 5 rebounds and 2 blocks. Tomas Delininkaitis and Gintaras Einikis also played a key role, each with 9 points.Lietuvos Rytas came with a scoring reputation, but ruled on defense, holding Makedonikos to 26 points in the game's first 24 minutes. the Makedonikos shooters hit only 1 of their first 13 three-pointers.Vilnius team led by as many as 27 points, 57-30, late in the third quarter.When Makedonikos started making three-pointers, however, midway through the fourth quarter, things got really exciting. Slaven Rimac hit the last to make it 77-74 with 12 seconds left, but Lietuvos Rytas held on with a final free throw by Javtokas with 6,4 seconds to go for the victory."This is perfect. We had an amazing first half and everything was good to us. However, we committed too many mistakes in the second half especially the fourth quarter. We had some problems but we showed some great pride managing the delicate situation. Now it's time to enjoy the win", - said Javtokas."This is so great. We worked hard all year to get to this game, and we wanted to win so bad. We came to play here and we didn't want them to beat us. In the last quarter we lost concentration because of the big lead we had, but fortunately, we managed to overcome the problems and took the title", - said Lietuvos Rytas forward Haris Mujezinovi,,."This is absolutely great. Incredible. I feel so good, I never felt like this before, our fans are great and they deserve everything. This is for them", - said Jasaitis.
