By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Joffrey Lauvergne was unstoppable on all ends of the court to end the game with a career-high performance of 29 points, as he paced Zalgiris Kaunas to a 102-75 victory over Khimki Moscow Region at home in Round 18 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
The Frenchman finished the game with 13-14 FG along with 9 rebounds and accumulated a PIR of 38 all of which he did in less than 23 minutes, a new career-high as well.
“There are some nights like this. My teammates helped me a lot and we finished with the win. To combine both is extremely nice. We wanted to win, we want to win every game and we put everything together”, he commented after the game.
Coach Martin Schiller was even surprised at his performance when getting at Lauvergne for a missed chance to contest for a shot! “I got on Joffrey at half-time for not contesting a shot and then saw he had already scored an enormous amount of points! He had a very good game and the main thing for me was that he, like all the others, improved his defence in the second half.”
Khimki took full control in the first half as Devin Booker scored 15 of his total 19 points before the halftime break, as the visitors remained in charge 48-39. Things took a completely different spin in the third quarter, as Zalgiris rout with a smashing 39-13 run to restore its lead.
The Kaunas side improved to an 11-7 record to extend its streak to six games, as Nigel Hayes posted 14 points and Marius Grigonis had 18 points and 8 assists.
For Khimki, this is their 9th consecutive defeat this season, as they further slip down the standings with a 2-16 record. Alexey Shved left the court with a team-high performance of 22 points and 8 assists while Jordan Mickey added 10 points.
Photo: EuroLeague