By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Injury-plagued EA7 Emporio Armani Milan suffered another defeat, this time against Zalgiris Kaunas. The Lithuanian team kept the opponents to just 24 points at half-time, fought off Milan’s late push, and grabbed a 71-62 victory in Round 8 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
Keenan Evans led the winning team with 23 points, while Rolands Smits followed with a 10 points and 10 rebounds double-double.
“We played all forty minutes, I know we had a couple of rough patches, but we didn’t let that control us, and we just stayed strong and together,” Evans said after another great performance.
Naz Mitrou-Long had career-high 19 points for Milan, while Kevin Pangos added 11.
Ettore Messina’s team played another game without injured Shavon Shields and Billy Baron, while Stefano Tonut and Luigi Datome also missed the match at Zalgirio Arena. Reportedly, they might add French swingman Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot, after a series of absentees.
“Tough game. We suffered all game long. Unfortunately in the only moment we came close, we made mistakes that we couldn’t afford. We are going home with a good performance from Naz Mitrou Long, who I think gave us a little bit of hope, that we found a legit EuroLeague player. We’ll move on from there, and keep working until we are all together,” Ettore Messina stated after the fifth defeat of the season.
With a third straight win, Zalgiris improved to a 5-3 score, while Milan extended their losing streak to four games and has a 3-5 score after eight rounds in the EuroLeague.
“After the first two quarters of a very physical and tough game, I’m happy that had control until the end. In matches like this, you need to be patient and fight till the end“, the head coach of Zalgiris Kazys Maksvytis noted after another home win.
Milan’ struggled to find points from the very beginning of the match, scoring just four in the first seven and a half minutes. With solid defense, they kept close, but couldn’t jeopardize the lead of the hosts who went to the break with a 34-24 lead.
Offensive woes continued for the guest even after the break. Still, Devon Hall and Naz Mitrou-Long kept their hopes up with a couple of three-point shots at the end of the third period, even though Zalgiris maintained a 10-point lead for the last ten minutes.
The Italian team managed to cut the deficit to four points in the fourth period, but Zalgiris answered at the right time, grabbed another double-digit lead, and it was all over for Milan at Kaunas.