By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The Lithuanian champions remain “hot” in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague after beating Valencia 71-63 and improving their record to a 9-5. This was the fifth time these sides met in the Euroleague and Valencia had 4-0 perfect record before tonight’s game. However, things are changing.
After being down by 11 points in the last quarter (63-52) Valencia was able to close the gap down the last stretch. With one minute left on the clock, they were trailing by four (65-61), but Vasilije Micic hit a three-pointer that sealed the deal for Zalgiris.
Zalgiris was the better team in the second half. The hosts were up by 2 points after the first half (36-34). However, that wasn’t enough for them as they lost their tenth game in a row.
The Key: Sarunas Jasikevicus used the halftime break to light up his players as Zalgiris made a crucial run (11-3) in the begging of the third quarter. The team from Kaunas won that period 20-10 and built 8 points lead before the last quarter (54-46)
The Star: Paulius Jankunas had a double-double game for the winners scoring 11 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. He was very reliable for Zalgiris tonight, especially with his mid-range jumpers. The Serbian point guard Vasilije Micic played an important role as he scored the key three-pointer, finishing the game with 16 points and 5 assists.
Not enough: Bojan Dubljevic tried his best to save Valencia from another loss as he recorded a double-double. He finished the game with 11 points and 10 rebounds which was enough for 21 in PIR, but not enough for the win.
The game in Valencia was delayed for almost 30 minutes because of the technical issues. Perhaps the delay affected the hosts as they were pretty cold at the beginning of the match. They just couldn’t find any offensive rhythm scoring only four points in the first six minutes (10-4).
With Erick Green coming from the bench for Valencia, things started to look better as they found the way through the Zalgiris defense. They were trailing only by three points after the first quarter (19-16) with Green scoring 5 points in short time.
Valencia started the second quarter with back to back triples turning things around (22-19). However, Zalgiris stayed close and in the second half, the Lithuanians were rock-solid in defense allowing only 22 points to the hosts
With this loss, Valencia sinks to a 3-11 record in the Euroleague.
Photo credit: Euroleague