Road win gives way for Zalgiris to LKL finals 0
Zalgiris eliminated a double-digit deficit in the third quarter to advance to the Lithuanian League (LKL) finals for the seventeenth time in a row. The club from Kaunas raced from behind to defeat Siauliai 86:78 and guarantee a place in the final stage of the playoffs, where they will face Lietuvos Rytas.
Marius Prekevicius rushed ahead in a fast break in the 29 minute of the game to increase Siauliai’s lead to 64:54, but Zalgiris answered with a 7:0 run to bring it back to a one-possession game.
The game was tied at 74-all in the middle of the last period, but Zalgiris dominated under the boards and worked their way to a 4:0 run after several misses on the offensive end. Marcus Brown added a massive three-pointer from eight meters to seal the outcome of the game.
Deividas Gailius led the hosts with 20, Latvian center Raitis Grafs scored 14 and Mindaugas Kuzminskas finished the game with 10. Two guards, Derrick Low, who also had 7 assists, and Marius Prekevicius, ended the game with 9 points each.
Tadas Klimavicius scored 7 points and grabbed 6 rebounds in the first seven minutes of the game alone and ended up with a nice double-double of 20 points and 11 boards. Another big guy Mirza Begic also found it easy to score as the Slovenian finished the game with 15 points and added 8 rebounds. Dainius Salenga had 15 and Marcus Brown collected 13.
Zalgiris power forward Travis Watson was sidelined due to illness.
Darius Maskoliunas (Zalgiris coach): “We were prepared for the challenge. I’ve said before that Siauliai are on a good roll now. They seemed to be very relaxed in the way they played with no pressure on them. Their style of basketball is perfect for the fans. It all turned out the way we expected.”
Antanas Sireika (Siauliai coach): “It’s nice to see such a lot of people in the arena. However, I have to admit losing to a stronger opponent. We have to play above our capabilities in order to beat a team like Zalgiris.”
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