Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius defeated Ostend in the Qualifying Round final and secured a spot in Group D of the Euroleague, where they will face Maccabi and four other teams.
By Amy Samin
Time to make history: Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius, who recently joined Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv’s Euroleague group, is one of only two teams that have never lost to Maccabi in Europe (along with Academic Sofia). They secured their spot by defeating Ostend of Belgium on Friday in the Euroleague Qualifying Round final.
The coach of the Lithuanian team is the former head coach of the Polish and German National Teams, Dirk Bauermann, who was also the coach of Maccabi’s Tyrese Rice at Bayern Munich. Rytas’ biggest stars in the preseason were Martynas Gecevicius, Renaldas Seibutis and Omar Cook. Maccabi will face Rytas first in an away game on 7 November, and will host the Lithuanians at Nokia Arena on 12 December.
