Partizan ends Zalgiris home streak in EuroLeague 30
Zalgiris Kaunas suffered 74-88 loss at the hands of Partizan Belgrade in the EuroLeague Round 23 game on Friday at Zalgirio Arena.
Zalgiris saw its four-game home winning streak end and has now lost three straight for a 12-11 record. Ignas Brazdeikis scored 17 points in the loss and Laurynas Birutis and Rolands Smits both chipped in 10 points.
Partizan made 13 three-pointers to improve to 12-11 with eight wins in the last 10 games. Ioannis Papapetrou paced six Partizan players in double figures with 17 points. Mathias Lessort and Kevin Punter both scored 14, while Zach LeDay picked up a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds. Dante Exum added 11 points and James Nunnally all 10 of his in the fourth quarter.
The game was close for the first 5 minutes before Papapetrou hit a triple and Punter scored 4 points in a 0-9 run to a 9-20 Partizan lead. Exum added 5 points for Partizan off the bench as the advantage grew to 15-26 after 10 minutes.
LeDay’s triple early in the second quarter pushed the margin to 14 points, 17-31. Zalgiris kept Partizan scoreless for nearly 3 minutes but could not cut into the deficit as three-pointers from Alen Smailagic and Aleksa Avramovic had Partizan up 19-37. A second Punter triple gave the guests a 22-point cushion 20-42 and the guests stayed up 30-47 at the break.
Zalgiris was strong coming out of the locker room with Birutis scoring 6 points and Arnas Butkevicius and Edgaras Ulanovas draining shots from deep to cut the margin to 46-56. Zalgiris trimmed the gap further, 52-58, and trailed 54-61 after 30 minutes.
Partizan delivered the knockout punch in the first 3 minutes of the fourth quarter with 2 triples in a 2-11 start to go up 56-72 with 7 minutes left. The hosts could not get closer than 12 points the rest of the way.
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