Group A

Another big margin win for the hosting team Lithuania in Day 2 of the OMNITEL U18 European Championship, an 87-66 score against Poland at the Lietuvos Rytas Arena in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Edgaras Ulanovas and Lithuania look like one of the tournament favourites from the start

Lithuania secured their spot in the next round after taking a 2-0 record and Poland dropped to 1-1 and still fight for their spot in the race for the medals.

For the second night in a row, in front of a sold out arena with fanatic local fans, the Lithuanian team managed to decide the game early and win by a big difference.

The gap at the half time break reached 26 points already and Poland had no tools to turn the bowl over.

Jonas Valanciunas had a big performance with 16 points and 18 rebounds, Deividas Pukis added 16, Dovydas Redikas scored 15 and Renaldas Simanavicius finished with 12 points and 5 assists.

Przemyslaw Karnowski led Poland with 13 points, Mateusz Ponitka added 11 and Michal Sokolowski reached 10 with 7 rebounds.

After 7 minutes Lithuania held just a 12-9 lead, but went on a 15-3 run in the remaining minutes until the buzzer behind Pukis who scored 8 in that stretch.

Down by 15, 27-12, already after 10 minutes put Poland in a bad spot, but Ponikta made an effort to carry his team back with several shots, yet when he picked up his 3rd foul and left to the bench it was time for Lithuania to make another push.

Redikas and Valanciunas carried their team to double the points of Poland, 52-26 and finish the first half with a 56-30 lead.

The 2nd half kept the fans entertained, but didn't make a whole lot of difference on the final outcome.

Tomorrow Lithuania will take on Slovenia while Poland will meet Ukraine.