By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
On a game that may have huge playoff implications, Partizan got the 88-74 road win in Kaunas over Zalgiris, getting the tiebreaker over the Lithuanians with a second win over them.
Partizan and Zalgiris are now tied with Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv and Valencia at 12-11 between the 7th and the 10th spot in the standings.
Ioannis Papapetrou with 17 points was the top scorer of the winners, which also got 14 points from Mathias Lessort and 14 from Kevin Punter.
Partizan led from wire to wire, starting with a 26-15 first quarter and jumping to a 17-point advantage at halftime (47-30).
Zalgiris reacted in the third period and trimmed the lead to seven points (61-54), but Partizan opened the last quarter with a 20-7 partial score (81-61) and the game was over.
As Papapetrou said: “We know they are a very good team. We know they always fight until the end. It’s an unbelievable arena and the fans are unbelievable. They deserve congratulations, but we stuck to the game plan. We knew they would fight back. We took the punches”.
Ignas Brazdeikis with 17 points tried his best for Zalgiris, however, the injury woes of Zalgiris and the absence of Isiah Taylor were evident.
Partizan coach Zeljko Obradovic explained: “We had more offensive rebounds than they had defensive rebounds so that was one of the keys of the game. But I believe we played, in general, a good game except for the third quarter. It was something that we talked about in the locker room that they will try to play more aggressively, and it was like that”.
Zalgisi coach Kazys Maksvytis practically agreed and also pointed out the schedule of his team: “We had less energy. It was the second time that we had a double week and had one day less than our opponents. We are not happy about this of course. They had one more day off and played with more energy. Nothing against my guys. They fought but we were just not in the best shape.”