By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Lonnie Walker started the game with an impressive dunk and ended with 24 points on 4/6 threes, leading Zalgiris Kaunas to the win over Panathinaikos AKTOR.
The final score was 84-77 as Deividas Sirvydis added 19 points for the winners.
“At the end of the day, it’s 10 players and one ball and I wanted to get our first win for our fans and my teammates”, said Walker after the game as Zalgiris bounced back from three straight defeats.
Panathinaikos missed coach Ergin Ataman and Cedi Osman who played with the Turkish national team for the Eurobasket qualifiers got 17 points from Kendrick Nunn and 16 from Omer Yurtseven.
Lucas Lekavicius also missed the game from Zalgiris, playing for the Lithuanian national team.
The two teams are now tied at 7-4 and share the 5th spot in a four-way tie.
Walker’s show
Zalgiris opened up the game with a 20-9 lead and was up by 10 (28-18) at the end of the first period and then by 18 (44-26) with Lonnie Walker already scoring 15 points, while Kendrick Nunn was in early foul trouble with three.
Panathinaikos reacted and trimmed the lead to 11 (46-35) with Omer Yurtseven having 14 points.
Nunn’s three made it a nine-point game (49-40), and Panathinaikos was down seven points at halftime (49-42) after Juancho Hernangomez’s breakaway dunk.
Panathinaikos continued their push and finally got a 59-57 lead after a three by Lorenzo Brown after a partial 17-8 score.
Zalgiris answered back with an 8-0 run (65-59) and the third period ended with Panathinaikos down by two (65-63).
The home side opened the last quarter with two threes (71-63) by Sirvydis and Alen Smalaigic and pushed the lead back to 12 (78-66), practically deciding the game.
Photo credit: Getty Images