BONN (Germany) - Telekom Baskets Bonn extended their winning streak in the Basketball Champions League to nine games and also clinched their spot in the Quarter-Finals after defeating Rytas Vilnius 99-72 , the German team's second-largest win in competition history, inside the great atmosphere of the Telekom Dome.

Turning point: Bonn came out firing on all cylinders early in the game and led by as many as 14 points in the first quarter, but Rytas made their push in the second quarter, playing solid defense to hold Bonn to 15 points and getting the score to 41-37 at halftime.

The turning point came in the third quarter where Bonn dominated and outscored Rytas 33-13. The strong quarter gave the home team a 24-point lead and there wasn't enough time left for Rytas to recover from their large deficit.

Game heroes: Javontae Hawkins, a recent addition for Bonn and former player for Limoges CSP, provided a spark off the bench with 20 points in only 20 minutes. The 29-year-old also added 5 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals and shot 7-of-10 from the field and 4-of-6 from three-point.

Before today's performance, Hawkins had scored 20+ points only once in his 12 BCL games with Limoges.

TJ Shorts II also had another strong game, recording a game-high 22 points along with 7 assists and 4 rebounds. The MVP candidate also shot an efficient 50 percent from the field (8-of-16).

Stats don't lie: Bonn out-rebounded Rytas 42-26 including 12-4 on the offensive glass, which led to a 22-4 advantage in second chance points, one of the key differences in the game's outcome.

12 more shots were also made inside the arc by Bonn (24-12), as Bonn put the ball in the basket at a higher percentage (52.1 percent) compared to Rytas (40.7 percent).

Bottom line: Bonn remain undefeated at 4-0 in Group J and the German club will host BAXI Manresa (3-1) in their next game on Tuesday March 14.

Rytas drop to 1-3 in the group and were led in defeat by Martynas Echodas who finished with 14 points and 3 rebounds on 5-of-8 shooting from the field. Marcus Foster, who came into this game as the BCL's top scorer averaging 21.7 points per game, was held in check for 12 points and 4 turnovers, as well as 4 fouls.

The Lithuanian club will travel to face Bahcesehir College (0-4) in their next game on Wednesday March 15.

They said:
"We had a shaky first half. We knew we had some things we had to correct. We came out that second half with some fire, focused on the small details and we were able to pull through and extend the lead and get the 'W,' and that was the biggest thing for us; come out here, handle business and get the win." - TJ Shorts II, Telekom Baskets Bonn

"The start of the game, I thought we came out relatively well out of the gates. After this, we were very static on our offensive end the execution generally was poor. It was very uncharacteristic for this team. In the second half, we did an incredible job defensively, especially in the third quarter and that led to transition points. Focus and intensity go hand-in-hand. You can't have intensity without focus. It's not enough to just give great effort, you must be very concentrated on doing the right things very hard, and this is what we did in the second half." - Tuomas Iisalo, Head Coach Telekom Baskets Bonn

"First quarter, we came out without energy. Second quarter, we came back, and we played really solid defense. From solid defense, converted it to nice offense, but the second half was terrible. We didn't have any energy, they outrebounded us, they outrun us, and it was a terrible game from our side." - Martynas Echodas, Rytas Vilnius

"Through two quarters, we were close in the game and then in the second half, they were outrebounding us, outrunning us. We really lacked size and it really affected us. We couldn't manage to control the rebounds, both offensively and defensively and that influenced the game a lot because with second chance, Bonn scored 22 points and mostly, it decided the game." - Giedrius Zibenas, Head Coach Rytas Vilnius