VILNIUS (Lithuania) - Rytas Vilnius must have been looking forward to finally playing at home. In their first home game of the Basketball Champions League season, they took care of Peristeri bwin 89-64 to grab their first win, while also handing them their first loss in Group H.

This is the first time that Rytas have won a BCL game with a 20+ point margin. This was also Peristeri's biggest away defeat in the competition.

Turning point: Rytas came out firing on all cylinders, scoring 25 first quarter points for a 25-15 lead, dishing out 7 assists and knocking down 3-of-5 three-pointers. Rytas followed that up by outscoring Peristeri 27-11 in the second quarter to take a 52-26 lead to the half after a buzzer-beater by Marcus Foster, who also threw down a thunderous alley-oop in the quarter.

Peristeri never seemed to get into a rhythm throughout the game, as they never led and trailed by as many as 29 points. This was the first time that Rytas never trailed in a BCL game.

Game hero: Marcus Foster led Rytas with 24 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists on 10-of-17 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 from three-point for an efficiency rating of 31. The 27-year-old showed off his versatility, throwing down an alley-oop and knocking down the three-pointer at the buzzer to end the first half.

Foster became the first player to combine 20+ points with 10+ rebounds and 5+ assists in a BCL game since Hans Vanwijn in January 2021 with JDA Bourgogne Dijon (22 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists v Keravnos) and the first player to achieve that with Rytas in BCL history.

Stats don't lie: Both teams made nine three-pointers, but Rytas did so in only 18 attempts compared to Peristeri's 31. Margiris Normantis made five of Rytas' nine threes, tied for the most by a Rytas player in a BCL game with Mindaugas Girdziunas, who did it in October 2020, also against Peristeri.

Rytas made 13 more shots from two-point range (24-11) and also doubled up Peristeri in points in the paint (40-20). The hosts also had a +22 advantage in total rebounds (52-30) and a +7 advantage on the offensive glass (17-10) that helped lead to some easy buckets.

Bottom line: Rytas have grabbed their first win of the BCL season and are now 1-2 in Group H, while Peristeri suffered their first loss and were led by Dimitris Moraitis who nearly missed a double-double with 13 points and 9 rebounds. Vassilis Spanoulis' squad fall to 2-1 in the group.

The Lithuanian and Greek teams will square off again in their next game after the break on Wednesday November 30 where Peristeri will then be the home team.

They said:

"Of course, definitely a good win for us. We started 0-2 and for sure on home court, we wanted to show another face. I think our fans enjoyed it. I don't like to talk too much about the numbers, but 52 against 30 rebounds, Miro Bilan scoring 5 points, Marcus Denmon scoring 6 points, that's what it takes to win big games in Basketball Champions League. Today, I think the guys felt they were enjoying the game as well." - Giedrius Zibenas, Head Coach Rytas Vilnius

"That was a fun game for us, especially after the month we went through, and I see us getting better. I think we always have room to improve, but tonight was a good start for us moving forward." - Marcus Foster, Rytas Vilnius

"I feel like tonight wasn't our night. We didn't play well offensively. We didn't make shots. There's nights like that. I feel like we came out and we didn't rebound the ball and that was the difference in the game. We got to have a short memory and we'll be playing them again. They'll be coming to Athens, so we'll be ready." - Marcus Denmon, Peristeri bwin