By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz triumphed over Zalgiris Kaunas with 97-77, marking their third win after eight games in the competition. The Kaunas side now stands at a 4-4 record.
The key: Just when it seemed that Baskonia was losing its winning ground, Rodrigues Beaubois came in with a three-pointer (79-68, 36′) and started pulling away with a 17-point lead with three minutes to go.
The game: Baskonia got ahead early with a dunk of Poirier, that made the score 14-9 in the visitors’ favour. After the end of the first period, the Spanish side’s superiority in rebounds and scoring efficiency were enough to put them in the lead by 21-15.
Zalgiris bounced back in the second quarter, as Micic scored to push the home team two points behind Baskonia (27-25), yet Granger and Janning took charge a bit afterwards, sending the deficit to double-digits (29-41). At halftime, the visitors managed to stay up by 54-32.
The momentum of the game didn’t change much at the beginning of the second half. Even though the hosts were much more competitive, they still had lots of ground to cover and were down 70-57, despite their 25-16 run in the third period.
However, Baskonia was too tough to break. When Zalgiris approached, Johannes Voigtmann pushed the lead to 12 points again (66-54).
The star: Tornike Shengelia finished the game with 19 points and 8 rebounds, Beaubois also tapped 19 points along with two rebounds.