By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
Zalgiris Kaunas traveled to Greece to play a do-or-die game against an injury plagued (Vassilis Spanoulis and Janis Strelnieks out) Olympiacos that is also in pursuit of a playoffs spot. And the Lithuanian side stayed alive and well in the postseason race by beating their opponents 72-68.
Aaron White scored a team-high 14 points while Brandon Davies had 13 points and seven rebounds for Zalgiris. Leo Westermann added 11 points and scored possibly the more important basket of the game down the stretch.
With 1:15 remaining, the French guard drove to the basket and hit the floater to put his team up 65 – 68. Nikola Milutinov, one of the game’s top players (18 points, 12 rebounds) went 1/2 from the line on the other end and his team pulled off the defense to get a chance to tie the score or get the lead.
Briant Weber though, who had pulled off some heroics (career-high 26 points, plus four rebounds) throughout the match, missed the jumper. Zalgiris’ players remained calm from the free throw line to retain their distance and their chances to make the playoffs.
This result improves Zalgiris to 14 – 15 and drops Olympiacos to 14 – 15. Both the Lithuanian team and the Reds can advance in the next stage but need a combination of results in the last round apart from beating Real Madrid and Darussafaka Tekfen respectively.
Olympiacos, that also had Giorgos Printezis playing while suffering from heavy fever, was up 51 – 39 with 3:33 remaining in the third period but Zalgiris completely shut down its hots to slowly, yet steadily, chew that deficit. The Lithuanian side tied the game thanks to back-to-back 3-pointers by Arturas Milaknis and then took the lead 51 – 53 with Nate Wolters, capping a 14 – 0 run. Weber scored Olympiacos first points after six minutes to make it 53 – 53 and the match remained a thriller until the last minute.