By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
On a very important game in the race for the postseason, Barcelona got the job done with an 82-70 win over Zalgiris, keeping their distance for most of the second half.
Dario Brizuela with 20 points, Justin Anderson with 1,6 and Kevin Punter with 14 were the leading scorers of the winners, which now have a 17-13 record and a four-way tie between the 5th and the 8th place of the standings with Crvena Zvezda, Bayern Munich, and Paris.
“As we said at halftime if we could play this defense and run we had a good chance”, said Brizuela after the final buzzer, “we had a really solid game on both sides of the floor”.
On the other side of the spectrum, Zalgiris dropped to 14-16 and remains 12th in the standings, two wins away from the play-ins line at the moment.
Deividas Sirvydis, Ignas Brazdeikis, and Sylvain Francisco with 13 points each tried their best for the guests.
Barcelona controlled the game after the first quarter
Despite Zalgiris closing the first period with a 20-16 lead, Barcelona opened the second with a 7-0 run (23-20) and got even a seven-point cushion (31-24).
Still, Zalgiris managed to close the gap to three points (34-31) after a three by Ignas Brazdeikis, and at halftime, the score was 36-31 in favor of the hosts. Barcelona continued to have the momentum and pushed the lead to 10 points (57-47) with Brizuela and Anderson scoring key buckets.
The hosts led 59-51 entering the last period, extended their lead to 13 points with one more three by Brizuela (71-58) with Zalgiris trying to keep up but being unable to do so.
PHOTO CREDIT: EuroLeague