Rytas Perlas Vilnius takes the title at Gintreda Future Stars 2019

Gintreda Future Stars Basketball Tournament 2019 winners

An impressive Rytas Perla Vilnius team remained unbeaten in the tournament and claimed the title after facing Porsche Ludvigsburg in the final. The Lithuanians started the final game very strongly, quickly establishing a double digit lead. Rytas superbly orchestrated by Augustas Marciulionis forced numerous turnovers which led to easy scoring opportunities from the fastbreaks. Ludvigsburg’s situation was worsened by their poor shooting from the outside in the first half which led to Rytas leading 39-27 at the half time break.

In the second half Ludvigsburg led by Johannes Patrick found their range from outside and 7 foot NBA prospect Ariel Hukporti finally started to provide a solid contribution from inside. In the last minutes of the game Ludvigsburg managed to reduce the lead to 5 points but the combination of superb inside defence from Ernestas Narusevicius and Andrea Kolagiros and cool distribution on the ball on the offensive end allowed Rytas to secure the title with their point guard Augustus Marciulonis voted MVP of the tournament.

In the third place game a constantly improving Oxygen Orange 1 Basket seriously challenged the U18 England National team. The Italian outfit which came to Future Stars weakened by absence of Nemanja Gajic and Destiny Agbamu due to last minute visa issues were a true Cinderella team of the tournament. After an unconvincing start they booked their place in the consolation final by beating Macccabi Tel Aviv 104-102 after a tense double overtime thriller.

In the third place game the Italians led up to the 35th minute and their patient offence guided by Mateo Bogliardi caused England numerous problems. In the last phase of the game England regained control of the board and a barrage of threes from the impressive Cameron Hildreth allowed them to end up on the right side of 98-85 result.