By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Nigel Hayes (21 points) and Zach LeDay (19 points) stepped up to lead Zalgiris Kaunas to a 105-97 overtime victory over visiting AX Armani Exchange Milan for Round 26 of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
A nerve-wracking finale was in store for the Kaunas crowd, as Rodriguez tied the score to 91 points with 13 seconds remaining in the game. Despite many ups and downs in their game, LeDay’s presence in the overtime period was crucial for the hosts, as he was there to give solutions to his team and help it achieve a big victory as the regular season is coming to an end.
Hayes led all Zalgiris scorers with his 21-point performance, while three more scorers ended the game in double-digits, with Edgaras Ulanovas posting 16 points, Jock Landale adding 14 points and Thomas Walkup exiting the court with 18 points.
The Italian side had Vladimir Micov, Sergio Rodriguez and Kaleb Tarczeuski adding 18 points each, though they couldn’t use their second-half comeback (47-38) to turn the tables on their hosts and grab a victory that would place them right back to the playoffs line.
Zalgiris stirs up trouble in the standings again
After much turmoil surrounding the game in Kaunas due to the recent coronavirus outbreak in Italy and the Lithuanian Ministry of Health’s safety warnings, the sold-out crowd was in for a feast. Sarunas Jasikevicius greeted Ettore Messina in a light-hearted manner prior to the game by making a “mask” with his hands on his face and Zalgiris stepped on the floor to fight its way up to the standings, improving to an 11-15 record in the standings, a tie with Milan.
“Not everything we did was great, we got ourselves in trouble many times when we were ahead especially we lost concentration many times and every time it seemed like Milan came back. In the end it was good how we started overtime and pulled the game up. At this part of the season the most important thing is a win”, said Jasikevicius after the game.