By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Baskonia needed a big road win and got it in a place where most EuroLeague teams are struggling.
Still, Pablo Laso’s team got the 83-70 win in Kaunas over Zalgiris which dropped to a 7-5 record, while the winners got their 5th win of the season for a modest 5-7 record.
Chima Moneke scored 17 points, Donta Hall and Trent Forrest added 14 points each, plus Hall got 11 rebounds, as the guest made things happen. Markus Howard once again didn’t make a three and finished with nine points.
“We said at halftime that we had to be physical, we knew that Zalgiris was going to fight and we had to match that energy”, said Hall after the final buzzer, “we had a five-game losing streak, we had to figure things out”.
Lonnie Walker with 19 points was the top scorer of the game, but in the end, he couldn’t save the day.
A comeback by the guests
Baskonia managed to lead 19-11 after seven minutes of play, however, at the end of the period, Zalgiris was just two points behind (19-17) and managed to lead 39-31 after two threes by Deividas Sirvydis and Dovydas Geidriatis.
The halftime score was 42-35 for the hosts who pushed the lead to 57-41 after six minutes and created a solid advantage, while Baskonia had just 2/20 threes at this point.
This didn’t last long. The guests had an admirable 11-0 run to close the period trailing by five (57-52) with Hall scoring already 14 points.
The push continued and Baskonia was up by seven (70-63) after an 18-6 partial score with three minutes left. Walker took things on his hands and trimmed the lead to two (72-70) with less than two minutes left.
Chima Moneke made two free throws (74-70) and that was the start of an 11-0 run (83-70) as Walker and Sylvain Fransisco missed on the most crucial moment of the game.
Photo credit: EuroLeague