Neptunas holds the fort in Klaipeda and sends Zalgiris to Game 6 0

Neptunas Klaipeda survived in the race for Lithuanian League title. Klaipeda held off Zalgiris Kaunas 87-86 in Game 5 of the best-of-seven finals, cutting the series lead to 3-2. The sixth game will be played on Friday in Kaunas.

Teams traded leads early on, before two three pointers from Neptunas bigs (8-14). Arturas Milaknis and Paulius Jankunas answered with long distance shots of their own, but the greens trailed 20-24 after 10 minutes.

Milaknis made 3 three pointers in a row in the start of second quarter – 29-27. Then Martynas Mazeika also hit a three-pointer and scored a basket-plus-foul, putting the hosts up 35-31. Neptunas held 49-42 halftime lead.

Mindaugas Girdziunas and Vytautas Sarakauskas kept the hosts in front in the third quarter. Zalgiris remained close thanks to Jankunas, Justin Dentmon and Robertas Javtokas, but a strong finish to the third quarter allowed the hosts to build a double-digit lead, 70-59.

Zalgiris rallied as Dentmon closed the gap with a triple for 70-73 and Sarunas Jasikevicius nailed a jumper for 76-78 with 2 minutes to go. However, Justas Sinica and Sarakauskas nailed back-to-back triples, giving the hosts 84-78 with 48 seconds to go, which was cushion big enough to hold on to the lead and send the series to Game 6.

Sarakauskas paced the winners with 19 points plus 7 rebounds. Girdziunas had 12 points with 6 assists, and Sinica also netted 12, while Ulanovas scored 11, and Mazeika 10 in the winning effort.

Dentmon had 16 points for Zalgiris before fouling out, Arturas Milaknis netted 15, while Jankunas amassed 13 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists.