LKL: Zalgiris beats Juventus Utena at home 0

Zalgiris Kaunas players grabbed the tenth victory in Lithuanian Basketball League. Zalgiris defeated Juventus Utena team 85-71 in home arena on Monday.

The greens started leading from the first minute of the game. The aggressive plays of Tomas Dimsa forced opposing team’s coach to ask for an early time-out. Later in the first quarter both teams started shooting three-pointers. In just 75 seconds Utena’s players made a couple of shots, Zalgiris’ – even three. The score after the first period was 30-15.

The second quarter started with three-pointers by Martynas Pocius and Vytenis Cizauskas (36-19). Juventus Utena scored 7 points in a row, but Pocius made an easy dunk on the fast break and the veteran Sarunas Jasikevicius made the mid-range jumper (46-34). Successful defense of the visitors managed to lower the gap to 8 points – 46-38 at the end of the first half.

The third quarter started with the great plays of Mindaugas Kupsas. He hit a two-pointer and a free-throw. Then a young big man made an excellent pass to the captain of a team Paulius Jankunas (51-40). Zalgiris’ players continued their well-run offense and increased their advantage to the top mark of 20 points (60-40). Then Utena’s coaches called time-out again. This time it was productive and the difference was slightly reduced to 64-50.

The fourth period began with a mid-range jumper of Jasikevicius and his alley-oop to Robertas Javtokas (68-52). Juventus answered with 8 points in a row but the plays of Arturas Milaknis and Javtokas did not allow them to think about the victory (85-71).

Top scorers:

Zalgiris: A.Milaknis 19, R.Javtokas 15+9reb, V.Cizauskas 11+5reb+4ast+2steals, M.Pocius 11, P.Jankunas 9+12reb, V.Lipkevicius 6, M.Kupšas 5+6reb, T.Dimsa 5, S.Jasikevicius 4 , A.Gudaitis 0 , T.Klimavicius 0, J.Dentmon 0.

Juventus: S.Kulvietis 23+5reb, A.Matthews 18+5reb, E.Stanionis 10.