By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Zalgiris Kaunas made the crucial run in the second quarter and managed to hold on until the end for an 85-79 home win over Bayern Munich in Round 26 of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
With this win, Zalgiris improved to an 11-15 record staying alive in the playoff race and getting closer to Bayern which now stands at 12-14.
Marius Grigonis scored 18 and Brandon Davies 16 points followed by Leo Westermann’s 12 points (4-6 triples) and Edgaras Ulanovas’ ten.
For Bayern, Nihad Djedovic banked 17 points in addition to Derrick Williams and Devin Booker’s ten points each.
“Congratulations to the fans, to the players, to everybody. Great win, 35, 33 minutes of great basketball where we really followed the game plan, followed everything we decided to do before and ultimately I thought we were a better team”, coach Sarunas Jasikevicius said after the game.
The game kicked off rather slow as both teams put on steel defense. However, they picked up the pace at the four-minute mark and treated the crowd with quite an effective first quarter after which Zalgiris led 22-20. The Lithuanian’s exploded in the second period nailing three shots from deep and led by Davies’ ten points went ahead 48-35 before the break.
“Congrats to Zalgiris for the win, they played better than us tonight. The beginning was correct, not good enough but correct. Then second quarter defensively very, very bad. They played good and they scored 48 points in the first half after which it was clear that’s not how we want to play. In the third quarter it was the same and then we changed the defense and played better but not good enough for the win”, coach Dejan Radonjic explained.
The halftime advantage turned out to be crucial in this game as Zalgiris managed to keep the distance, mostly thanks to Westermann and Ulanovas who combined for five shots from behind the arc to hold off Bayern’s comeback efforts. The closest Bayern reached was the five-point margin (83-78) but couldn’t go any further as Zalgiris secured the win.
Photo Credit: BC Zalgiris Kaunas