By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Brandon Davies became a father yesterday and celebrated with 21 points, eight rebounds, five assists, two steals, and two blocks, leading Zalgiris Kaunas to the 84-76 win over Buducnost Voli. However, it was not an easy game.
The guests behind 26 points by Norris Cole were not easy prey, despite missing injured Goga Bitadze and the led by a point (67-66) at the fourth quarter. Zalgiris reacted with a 10-3 run, entered the last five minutes with a 76-72 advantage and the guests never got closer than four points after that.
It was a contest decided on the last quarter with Marius Grigonis (16 p.) and Thomas Walkup (14 p.) stepping up in crucial moments. Zalgiris had a ten point lead (39-29) in the 17th minutes of the game but by halftime, Buducnost trailed by three (39-36).
“The most important thing at this point is it’s a win”, said Zalgiris coach Sarunas Jasikevicius. “When you are missing wins and missing players, it seems like the next one is difficult to come around. We got the monkey off our shoulders, but now we have to improve our basketball. We cannot continue playing like this. We are a much better team than we are showing right now, so let’s hope a couple days off and a win will help us to really start showing our true face in the next weeks. [In the fourth quarter] I think we found mismatches. I think we made a lot less mental mistakes. We changed the defense on Cole, tried to be more aggressive on him. And that’s it. The players pulled it out.”
Buducnost had the chance to gave to 2003 born Fedor Zugic his first taste of a EuroLeague game in the closing seconds. It was the ninth win of Zalgiris in this season’s EuroLeague for a total 9-14 record so far, while Buducnost had to settle for 6-17.
“In the last quarter and the second quarter, the start of the second quarter, we lost a little bit of the rhythm of the game, turning the ball over a little bit more than usual“, admitted coach Jasmin Repesa. “And at this level, when you make these kinds of mistakes, it’s very difficult to win. We fought until the end and unfortunately we didn’t win the game, but we have to continue and I think we are on the right way. We have a new player who only practiced once with us yesterday. He has to learn the system and everything will be better.”
Photo credit: EuroLeague