By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
A game that started as a walk in the park, ended up being a hard-fought win, even if in the end the hosts got the upper hand in case of a tie-breaker.
Zalgiris Kaunas prevailed over Anadolu Efes (85-72) by controlling the closing minutes and ended up getting a solid point advantage.
Thanks to this result, Zalgiris has an 8-6 record and still aims for the playoffs, while Efes dropped to 7-7.
Lonnie Walker with 18 points and Deividas Sirvydis with 14 led a balanced team effort, setting the tone early. Sylvain Fransisco added 16 points, making key plays down the stretch.
“Our defensive effort led our teams to victory, they managed to trim our lead to six-seven points, but our teammates took us up”, said Walker after the final buzzer.
Elijah Bryant with 23 points and Darius Thompson with 10 were the top scorers of Anadolu Efes, which is still missing Shane Larkin.
An unfinished comeback
Zalgiris started the game in full throttle, leading 27-17 after the first period with Walker scoring already 14 points and by 22 (41-19) after a 14-2 run in the second.
Efes was shooting 28% from the field and couldn’t react as the first half closed with the score being 48-30.
With Deividas Sirvydis reaching the 14-point mark, Zalgiris led by 21 (56-35) after three minutes in the third quarter, however, Efes managed to react closing the score from 59-39 to 63-53 at the end of the period after a 14-4 run as Elijah Bryant had 18 points.
Rodrigue Beaubois with a three made it a nine-point game (65-56) entering the fourth quarter, Darius Thompson with a three trimmed it to eight (69-61) and with six minutes left Bryant Dunston was ejected with five fouls.
Dan Oturu closed the gap to six (69-63) only for Zalgiris to get back to a 10-point advantage (73-63) and keep their distance until the end.
Photo credit: EuroLeague