SAPORTA  CUP SEMIFINALS Game 1, 21/03, Game 2: 28/03 KK Zadar (CRO) - AEK Athens (GRE) 75-70 ,67-82 Lietuvos rytas (LTU) – Kinder Bologna (ITA) 70-60,71-83 Lietuvos rytas Vilnius - Kinder Bologna 70-60 (37-33) LRY: Elliott 18 (4/7 3pFG) + 4 steals; Kazlauskas 14 (6/7 FG); Giedraitis 11 (5/5 FT) + 6 asts; Siskauskas 10 + 10 rebs + 4 asts + 3 blocks; Okunsky 9 + 10 rebs; Macijauskas 8; Javtokas, Aidietis 0 KIN: Stombergas 14; Ekonomou 13; Daniloviè 10 (2/16 FG, 6/6 FT) + 7 rebs; Sconochini 7 + 5 rebs + 4 asts; Abbio, D.Andersen 6; M.Andersen 4; Binelli 0 2pFG: LRY 18/35 (51); KIN 10/38 (26) 3pFG: LRY 6/17 (35); KIN 6/21 (29) FT: LRY 16/19 (84); KIN 22/23 (96) Rebs: LRY 31, KIN 39 Trns: LRY 9, KIN 11 Lietuvos rytas downed injury-depleted Kinder Bologna by 10 pts and has pretty good chances to beat the "Italian millionaires" in the semifinal matchup, which will be continued next week in Bologna. Lietuvos rytas' guard Arvydas Macijauskas (1980,192 cm,G ), who guarded Kinder's leader Danilovic for the most of the game, said: "Danilovic is very clever player, but now only his name and contract have left... He wasn't that difficult to guard as I thought. He still uses that old bag of tricks like fouling people on purpose when the referees do not see it, but we all know those tricks and do not let him to provoke us." Danilovic finished scoring just 10 points and missing a big bunch of his shots. Quarterfinals, Game 1,2 Lietuvos rytas – Porto 93:73 77-87 Slask – Zepter Wroclaw – KK Zadar 56-63  64-9-69 Kinder – Pamesa 85-61 59-78 AEK – Iraklis 84-73  70-73 Iraklis Thessaloniki (GRE) - AEK Athens (GRE) 73-70 (41-34) (Johnson 30+10reb, Chatzivretas 14, Dinkins 13, Papadopoulos 8+7reb, Markopoulos 4, Hupmann 2+8reb, Ellis 2+5reb, Saouer, Diamantidis – Koronios 24, Tsakalidis 13, Bowie 11, Kakiouzis 6, Muursepp 6, Dikoudis 4+6reb, Chatzis 4, O’Sullivan 2, Kikilias, Hansell). Attn: 2,500 AEK is first semifinalist of Saporta Cup. They lost the second game to Iraklis 70-73, but had 11-points advantage in the game 1, which gives them a ticket to the semifinals. They will face there KK Zadar with stars Radja and Komazec. Pamesa Valencia (ESP) - Kinder Bologna (ITA) 78-59 (37-25) (Rodilla 21, Maluenda 14+5ast, Beard 12+10reb, Alvarez 11, Hopkins 11+10reb, Albert 5, Markovic 2, Luengo 2, Alonso – Danilovic 21+7reb, Ekonomou 11, Abbio 10+6ast, Binelli 8+9reb, Stombergas 5, D.Andersen 2, Rigaudeau 2, Sconochini, M.Andersen). Attn: 8,000 Horror in Valencia. Pamesa was close to make impossible thing. Almost all was expecting that the game between Pamesa and Kinder will be only formality, after Kinder beat Pamesa at home by 24 points. However Pamesa started the game with a great attitude and was very close to upset Italians. But 19-points lose in Valencia gives the semifinal ticket for Kinder Bologna. Porto Banco Mello (POR) - Lietuvos rytas Vilnius (LTU) 87-77 (45-33) (Perdigao, Miller 17; Grant, Pinto 13; Pedrera, Rocha 9; Santos 5; Miranda 4; Lourenco - Giedraitis 32 (10/13 FG, 10/13 FT); Ðiðkauskas 18 + 6 rebs; Okunsky 12 + 8 rebs; Elliott 8; Kazlauskas 5 + 6 rebs; Aidietis 2; Slezas, Javtokas) Lietuvos rytas could afford not to take the second game against Porto seriously. 20-points victory at home gave them for 99% the place in the semifinals. So 10-points defeat in Porto did not change a lot. Now Lietuvos will face the winner of game between Pamesa Valencia and Kinder Bologna. Very important game for both teams. Game for place in Euroleague. One of "Lietuvos Rytas" leaders Arvydas Macijauskas did'nt play due to injury. In the beggining of the game fight went point to point but "Porto" had few points advantage - 16:13 after Nuno Perdigao 2 points. Then "Porto" won the length 8:0 and was wining 29:19 . "Lietuvos Rytas" leaders made a lot of turnovers and "Porto" American Jared Miller was irrepressible. Giedrius Aidietis was'nt able to stop him and he got 5 fouls in the first half. "Lietuvos Rytas" center Alexander Okunskyy stood up well against the "Porto" Greg Grant. "Lietuvos Rytas" leader in the first half was Andrius Giedraitis. In the middle of the first half "Porto" leader Jared Miller sprained ankle. In the beggining of the second half "Porto" leader Jared Miller sprained other ankle and sat down on the bench for all time.He scored 17 points and was perfect from the floor 8-of-13.  But "Porto" played well and increased their lead to 16 after Pedrera 3 pointer - 59:43 and to 17 after another Pedrera' 3 pointer - 64:47. Andrius Giedraitis reduced dangerous advantage to 14 by his shoot from beyond the 3 point arc: 64:50. But Alexander Okunskyy got 5 foul and he was substituted by 19 years old Robertas Javtokas , "Lietuvos Rytas" was in dangerous situation. But Ramunas Siskauskas again became leader in the most dangerous situation - he scored two 3 pointers in arow and reduced "Porto" lead to 70:58. The last chance "Porto" lost with the ball which Eric Elliott stole from Nuno Perdigao and Nuno Perdigao got flagrant foul. Then after Eric Elliott' 2 free throws and Ramunas Siskauskas 2 points after offensive rebound "Porto" was winning 75:68. After few minutes Greg Grant got 5th personal foul and was substituted by Miranda. "Lietuvos Rytas" keep ball and did'nt hurry to reduce the result. Last points in the game scored Paulo Pinto - 87:77. For the fourth straight game in Saporta cup, Ramunas Siskauskas figured big in Vilnius' success. He managed to block 4 shoots being 196 cm height. KK Zadar (CRO) - Zepter Slask Wroclaw (POL) 69-64 (39-32) (Komazec 16+5reb, Radja 15+11reb+9ast, T.Ruzic 12, Krunic 10, Ervegovic 8, Perincic 7, J.Ruzic 1, Stewart – Wojcik 20, Szybilski 11+5reb, Zielinski 11, Mc Naull 8+6reb, O’Bannon 6, Stelmahers 6, Gregov 2, Kosciuk). Attn: 3,000 KK Zadar is already in the semifinals as they beat Slask Zadar again. They will meet AEK in the semifinals. Kinder – Pamesa 85-61 (36-34) (Rigaudeau 30+5reb, Frosini 12+9reb, Ekonomou 11+5reb, Stombergas 11+5reb, Sconochini 10, Abbio 6, D.Andersen 4, M.Andersen 1 – Beard 19+9reb, Rodilla 14, Maluenda 9, Hopkins 7+6reb, Markovic 5, Alvarez 3, Albert 2, Luengo 2, Alonso). Attn: 6,490 Kinder Bologna had some problems in the Saporta Cup quarterfinal game against Pamesa, especially in the first half. But they managed to win it. AEK – Iraklis 84-73 (46-44) (Koronios 14, Tsakalidis 13+5reb, kakiouzis 12+11reb, Bowie 11, Didoudis 10+8reb, Chatzis 10, Hansell 7, Muursepp 7, O’Sullivan – Chatzivrettas 29, Dinkins 16+5ast, Ellis 9+10reb, Johnson 8, Nahar 4, Papadopoulos 4, Hupmann 3+5reb, Sauer, Markopoulos). Attn: 6,000 AEK got very important victory against Iraklis, but everything could happen in the second game of Saporta quarterfinals. Lietuvos rytas – Porto 93:73 (44:35) (E. Elliott 32, A. Giedraitis 17, G. Aidietis 2, R. Siskauskas 21, A. Okunsky 2, A. Macijauskas 13, A. Kazlauskas 4 e A. Slezas 2. FC PORTO 73 – N. Perdigão, J. Rocha 15, P. Pinto 25, J. Miller 17, G. Grant 7, J. Pedrera 5, P. Lourenço 3 e Raul Santos 1) 1/4 finals caused an interest in Lithuania. All tickets were bought the day before and the hall was full. Spectators didn’t loose anything, because the game was important, nice and interesting. Portugueses haven’t been losing since 18 of November, but Lithuanians were too strong this time. The difference is 20 points, so “Porto” hasn’t many chances to play in 1/2 finals, because it has to win having 21 points advantage. “Lietuvos rytas” took inceptive from the beginning of the game and had it till the end. Lithuanians were increasing their advantage little by little. The score was 61:44 to “Lietuvos rytas” benefit in 27 minute, but Portugueses were able to reduce difference till 7 points (67:60) in 31 minute. Then Lithuanians began to play more successfully and ended the game having biggest advantage of the game – 20 points. E.Elliott played very well, nobody could stop him. He scored even 32 points. R.Siskauskas played successfully scoring 21 points. A.Macijauskas proved that he is in good shape. He didn’t play much time, but was able to score 15 points. Most of his shots were from awkward positions. A.Okunsky was not very helpful. He got many fouls too early, but other players successfully changed him. From “Porto” team P.Pinto was the leader, he played actively. American J.Miller played well, but he was too nervous. The other legionary G.Grant was not very good, he scored just 7 points. J.Rocha was invisible in first half, but he scored 11 points in turn in other part of second half. So, “Lietuvos rytas” took a big step toward 1/2 finals. Slask – Zepter Wroclaw – KK Zadar 56-63 (29:33) (Gregov 3 (1x3), Stelmahers 3, Zielinski 11 (3), W0jcik 10 (1), McNaull 11; O'Bannon 8, Kosciuk 3, Wilczek 0, Szybilski 7 - Komazec 16 (4), Perincic, Krunic 7 (2), T. Ruzic 11, Radja 11; Stewart 7, J. Ruzic 11 (3)). Attn: 5,000. Slask Zepter was not able to beat Radja and Co. form Zadar. It’s very dobtful they would be able to win the second game. There used to be lots of great players playing on the court in Wroclaw, like Drazen Petrovic, Nikos Gallis, Roy Tarpley. Yesterday the third time we had the opportunity to watch Croatian center Dino Radja, probably the best of all of them. His KK Zadar beat Zepter Slask without a big problems and they are the favorite for the Saporta Cup semifinals and th esecond game in Zadar. At the beginning Zepter took the 7-3 lead. Mc Naull with help of Adam Wojcik were able to stop Dino Radja, who did not impress in the first minutes. However the good appearance of Zepter finished after first 10 minutes. Then Radja in a simple way passed Piotr Szybilski, got two point being failed and another one from the free points line tieing the game 15-15. The 3-pointer of guard Darko Krunic and KK Zadar took the lead, which kept till the last minutes. Zepter was able to keep close distance just for another five minutes (22-23). Then 9-0 run of Zadar and guests were happy of the half time result. The second half started from very good play of guard Scott Stewart (tested last autumn by Zepter), who successfully passed the ball to his friends, and when needed scored important points. Radja was all time defended by 2 and even 3 Polish players, but in that situation he was passing the ball to his partners, who finished the actions. In the last minutes Polish team used pressing defence on the full court, so decreased the points difference. 7-points defeat does not mean losing any chances in the second game. However 8-points victory in Zadar would be extremely hard. (Cyprian Dmowski) 1/8 FINALS Game 1, 08/02/2000,Game 2 15/02/2000 Tau Ceramica Vitoria (ESP) - AEK Athens (GRE) 67-71, 65-85 Chalon (FRA) - Pamesa Valencia (ESP)  83-75,36-71 Hapoel Jerusalem (ISR) - Li. rytas Vilnius (LTU) 79-91,70-66 KK Zadar (CRO) - Racing Paris (FRA) 76-57, 72-67 KK Split (LTU) - Iraklis Thessaloniki (GRE)  63-71,66-79 Frankfurt Skyliners (GER) - Kinder Bologna (ITA) 62-57,53-83 Porto Banco Mello (POR) – Darussafaka Iss.(TUR) 81-78,54-49 Zepter Slask Wroclaw (POL) - Adecco Milano (ITA) 75-57,62-64