By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Zalgiris Kaunas had an astonishing start against Anadolu Efes to lead 44 – 14 in the second period en route to a 96 – 70 blowout win at home.
With that 30-point early advantage as a cushion, Zalgiris had no problem registering its ninth victory over 24 games. Efes is now also at 9 – 14. If the result wasn’t bad enough for the Turkish side, they lost center Dan Oturu to an apparent knee injury early in the second half.
“I believe that we had a good start,’ Zalgiris coach Andrea Trinchieri said. “We messed it up a bit. It’s human. But this was a great night for our players who played a great game. We deserved this kind of win in this kind of atmosphere. I’m very happy for my players. I’m happy they try to understand what I’m asking and they’re trying to put it on the court.”
Laurynas Birutis led Zalgiris overall with 18 points and eight rebounds. Rolands Smits, Brady Manek and Edgaras Ulanovas contributed 13 points a team to this powerful team effort by the hosts.
Too much of a large early margin to change anything
“We came out hard,” Birutis said. “We know that they are a really talented team but we didn’t let them going into the game easy. I think we had a really solid game overall. There are things we can improve but we did a pretty good job on defense against such a talented team.”
Will Clyburn (19 points) and Tibor Pleiss (17 points) scored in double figures for Efes. Their team put on some reaction after carrying that large deficit but they only managed to cut the margin to 16, 78 – 62, in the fourth quarter. Zalgiris responded with a 10 – 2 run to increase its lead beyond 20 once more and cruised to victory.
“Basically we lost the game in the first quarter,” Efes coach Erdem Can said. “At some points, we tried to come back with our energy and desire but it wasn’t enough.”