The Vytautas Magnus University (VDU) basketball team triumphed on Saturday in Barcelona (Spain) at the tenth World Inter-University Championships (WIUC).
Led by coach Arūnas Juknevičius and assistant coach Rytis Juknevičius, the VDU basketball players defeated the Lebanese American University in Beirut 39:26 in the final match.
The VDU team reached the final after defeating the team from the Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy, 38:27 in the semifinals. Prior to that, the Lithuanians defeated the basketball players from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Belgrade, Serbia, 36:26 in the quarterfinals.
In the first group match, VDU basketball players defeated the team from the University of Zagreb (Croatia) 40:25, in the second match, they defeated the team from the University of Milan (Italy) 49:36, and in the third match, they left no hope for the IESEG Management School in Lille (France) with a score of 63:16.
Gregor Allik, a VDU student from Estonia, was named the most valuable player of the tournament. A total of 40 university basketball teams from 16 countries participated in the championship.
Basketball games at the WIUC World Championship are extremely dynamic – two 12-minute halves are played without stopping the clock.
“The hardest part is that you have to play two or three games a day. This means that you have to warm up, focus, and concentrate on winning the same number of times. The second important factor is the unknown and often unusual playing style of the teams. The format, with two 12-minute halves and no timeouts, creates a lot of tension.
I am happy for the guys who endured this difficult marathon of games. Based on the result, it might seem like it was a walk in the park, but it certainly wasn’t,” said Arūnas Juknevičius, head coach of the VDU team, summarizing the tournament.
The VDU team, which triumphed in Barcelona, currently has seven wins and one loss in the Regional Basketball League Division A championship, putting them at the top of the tournament table.




