By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Lukas Lekavicius caught fire and led Zalgiris’ big comeback in the 73-68 home win against Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv.
Lekavicius banked 21 of his 23 points in the second half including the dagger two-pointer at the last minute. Arturas Milaknis, Edgaras Ulanovas, and Zach LeDay added ten points each.
For Maccabi – which couldn’t count on Scottie Wilbekin and Othello Hunter this game due to last-second injuries and it’s also missing key members like Tarik Black, Omri Casspi, Nate Wolters and John DiBartolomeo – Jake Cohen banked 20 points followed by Tyler Dorsey’s 18. Jalen Reynolds scored four and Aaron Jackson two points in their debuts.
Good things come to those who wait
Coach Sarunas Jasikevicius was not completely satisfied with his team’s performance but he won’t say no to a win: “All through the year, we deserved so much better things and we didn’t get them. I’m not sure we played good enough to win today, but you know sometimes during the long season you just take a W and you go home and you try to work on your stuff. It was not a very good game for us, but we’ll take it, especially in our situation. We managed somehow how to break the game, we found a point guard and also shooter, something that was lacking a little bit in the first half and Lukas changed the game.”
Zalgiris made a step forward to climbing out of the bottom of the standings improving to 5-12 while Maccabi now holds an 11-6 record at the fifth spot.
The hero of the game in Lekavicius described the start of the game by Zalgiris as “lazy” but he certainly worked hard in the second half: “I think we started the game very lazy and it was a problem in the first half, but in the second half we picked up our game, we hit some shots and that was the key of the game. It is very important in basketball to hit your open shots. We played very aggressively in our defense and I think that helped us a lot. Everybody feels better now. We’re in good shape, everybody hit some shots. The atmosphere was great, so shots were falling in.”
The game was full of ups and downs, and so was the first half. Maccabi had an upper hand early on (19-11) and although Zalgiris took over the lead (25-23) early in the second quarter, Dorsey and Cohen sparked Maccabi’s 11-0 run as they went on the break with a 34-29 lead.
They kept riding the momentum and opened the second half with a 10-0 run (44-29) but Zalgiris managed to recuperate. And not only. Lekavicius ‘took off’ for the Lithuanians who scored 19 straight points to go ahead 61-53 early in the final period. Maccabi managed to stay close but couldn’t turn it around and Zalgiris came out on top in the close finish.
Photo Credit: Turkish Airlines EuroLeague