Rytas, Neptunas and Skycop off to victorious start on Sunday

The new Betsafe LKL season continued on Sunday with dominant wins for Rytas and Neptunas, while the rebranded Skycop Prienai also began their campaign on a high note with a home triumph over Lietkabelis.

Eimantas Bendzius and Dominique Sutton led last year's runners-up Rytas to an 87-57 season-opening victory against Juventus. Bendzius was the game's top scorer with 20 points in his return to Vilnius, while Sutton introduced himself to the fans with 17 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals.

Arnas Butkevicius had 13 points and Mindaugas Girdziunas added 12 points for the Dainius Adomaitis-coached Rytas. The only double-digit scorers on Juventus, Karolis Guscikas and Alex Hamilton had 15 and 13 points, respectively.

Meanwhile, Neptunas shut out Nevezis in a 100-76 win in Klaipeda after outscoring the visitors from Kedainiai 35-18 in the fourth quarter of what was a close game in the first half.

Osvaldas Olisevicius top-scored for the home side with 17 points, Kyle Weaver chipped in with 16 points, while Lorenzo Williams collected 14 points and 7 rebounds.

Jon-Christopher Fuller had 20 points for Nevezis, as Martynas Varnas and Chauncy Collins scored 13 points each.

In the only other game of the day, Skycop stunned Lietkabelis with a 93-78 triumph in Prienai behind a 11-point and 11-assist double-double from 39-year-old team captain Mindaugas Lukauskis, who also collected 6 rebounds and 3 steals.

Mike Bruesewitz had a game-high 16 points, while Martynas Gecevicius knocked down 5-of-8 three-pointers to start his Skycop spell with 15 points; Ksistof and Darjus Lavrinovic both got into double figures as well with 11 and 10 points, respectively.

The trio of Saulius Kulvietis, Dominik Mavra and Michael Morrison all shared the team-high 11 point mark for Lietkabelis, who were handed an upset by last year's outsiders.