By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
It was not easy, it was ugly, but Zalgiris Kaunas beat Monaco 63-62 and with a 6-1 record remains all alone on the top of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings.
Arnas Butkevicius with 13 points and Alen Smalaigic with 10 were the top scorers of the winning side with no team scoring in the last 58 seconds.
“Probably it wasn’t about tactics anymore because we were doing a lot of mistakes, mental mistakes, but we just kept fighting, that’s it,” Zalgiris forward Butkevicius said after the game.
“It was probably a little bit of luck and a tough fight. We lost a lot of balls in the second half, a lot of mistakes and they were also scoring crazy shots. We are working hard and when you work hard, luck is on your side.”
Jordan Loyd with 23 points and Mike James with 12 were the leading scorers of Monaco.
A defensive battle
It was all about defense for Zalgiris which led 20-11 after the first period and with 34-25 at halftime.
Monaco simply couldn’t score in the first 20 minutes of action shooting 0/9 threes and 7/18 two-pointers.
However, things changed in the third period with Monaco starting with an 8-0 run to make it a one-point game (34-33) and then tie the score at 37.
The game turned into a dogfight with the two teams tied at 43 at the start of the fourth period and Monaco not making a three in 13 attempts.
Smailagic (52-47) and Butkevicius (55-49) made two key threes, but with the game on the line, Jordan Loyd gave finally the 62-61 lead with two minutes left.
Dovydas Giedriatis answered back to give Zalgiris the lead 63-62, Mike James missed, Sylvain Fransisco was called for an offensive foul and again James got the ball for the last possession.
He moved into the center of the paint, Zalgiris’ defense collapsed on him and the refs gave a jump ball with 0.7 seconds left. The ball was touched and the game was over.
Photo credit: EuroLeague