By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Lietkabelis Panavezys nearly pulled off the surprise of Round 2, yet Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar got lucky in the end and escaped with an 85-84 victory from Lithuania.
Panagiotis Kalaitzakis caused trouble to the Russian side with a new career-high of 22 points and a key presence in the fourth quarter, though he couldn’t carry his team to victory in the end. The hosts held on to a 45-42 lead by the end of the first half and managed to challenge Loko enough in the second.
When it came down to crunch time, Stanislav Ilnitskiy drained a three-pointer with 33 seconds remaining, giving Loko a three-point advantage and the final result was determined by a pair of free throws made by Kalaitzakis.
Errick McCollum and Johnathan Motley were Lokomotiv’s scoring duo, with 18 and 17 points respectively, as Evgeny Pashutin’s squad moved to 2-0.
Stanton Kidd had 14 points and Darius Thompson registered a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Lietkabelis, that remains winless after two rounds, also had Gediminas Orelik and Gabrielius Maldunas scoring 11 points each.
Joventut Badalona posted another powerful display to move to 2-0, this time with a 73-56 win against EuroCup newcomers Hamburg Towers.
Vladimir Brodziansky and Andres Feliz took charge for the Spanish side, with 16 and 14 points each and Ante Tomic followed with 11 points.
On the other end of the court, Jaylon Brown and Justus Hollatz both added 14 points for Hamburg and Zachary Brown posted 11.
Photo: EuroCup