By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Zalgiris celebrates its 70th anniversary with the most fitting way. Before the start of the Akropolis Cup the club retired the #11 shirt of Arvydas Sabonis and in the opening game the hosts beat 76-51 Panathinaikos. The players of the Lithuanian team wore retro jerseys as a tribute to the great Zalgiris teams of the past.
Coach Krapikas’ players controlled the game since the first minute and thanks to Jankunas, Gudaitis and Kariniauskas led by 19 points in the halftime (43-24). Panathinaikos had many absences (Fotsis, Mavrokefalidis, Nelson, Slaughter, Jankovic and Lountzis stayed in Athens) and only Esteban Batista and James Gist played well.
Euroleague legend Sarunas Jasikevicius met for first his ex-team as an assistant coach of Zalgiris
At the second game of the day, Lokomotiv Kuban destroyed Galatasaray 85-65. The Turkish team achieved to be competitive only in the first period. Loko produced great basketball on both ends of the floor with all the American guys on the roster being dominant. At the halftime the score was 49-32 for the Russians and the situation got even worst for Ataman’s team during the second half. Lokomotiv stayed focus in defense, produced many solid transition plays in offense and Galatasaray didn’t manage to react.
Lokomotiv will play in Eurocup in the upcoming season, but they seem to be a Eurolegue level team, very talented with high potentials. They will face Zalgiris in the final of the tournament, while Galatasaray will play Panathinaikos.