Zalgiris holds off Fenerbahce to tie the series 40

Zalgiris Kaunas bounced back in the best way possible, pulling out a thrilling 80-82 road win over Fenerbahce Istanbul in Game 2 of their best-of-five playoff series. Zalgiris ended Fenerbahce’s perfect home record this season and an 18-game home-court winning streak, but more importantly, tied the score at 1-1 in the series that now moves for Games 3 and 4 to Kaunas.

Zalgiris led for the majority of the night and had a 17-point margin on four occasions late in the third quarter before Fenerbahce rallied and tied it at 80-80 in the final minute. But Edgaras Ulanovas scored what turned out to be a game-winning basket, fittingly, as he finished with a game-high 20 points and pulled down 7 rebounds. Nate Wolters had 12 of his 14 points in the first half and Brandon Davies scored 13 points in the victory.

Luigi Datome paced the hosts with 17 points and 9 rebounds, Kostas Sloukas had 15 points and 6 assists, Jan Vesely scored 12 and Marko Guduric 11 in defeat.

Fenerbahce started hot, with Guduric connecting twice from downtown Nicolo and Melli also hitting a three-pointer to open a 13-6 lead. Fenerbahce scored on five of its first six possessions, but the visitors got it going themselves. Deon Thompson had a dunk and a jumper and Leo Westermann and Wolters hit from downtown in between to make it 15-18. Fenerbahce took a 21-20 lead into the second quarter after a three from Erick Green.

Luigi Datome added one from long distance early in the second. But Ulanovas was active on the offensive glass and scored 6 points to make it 26-30 before a triple apiece from Arturas Milaknis and Wolters helped create a 30-40 margin. Zalgiris hit more triples through Westermann and Aaron White, but Vesely scored twice inside and Sloukas hit from the outside to make it 39-46 at halftime.

Marius Grigonis scored 7 points in the opening 3 minutes of the second half to establish a 42-55 margin before Walkup had a jumper and a coast-to-coast layup for a 46-63 lead with 4:30 left in the third. Datome gave Fenerbahce a spark, but Zalgiris was perfect converting from close range, with Davies scoring twice to keep the margin at 17 points. The visitors took a 58-73 cushion into the final quarter, but did not score a single point for almost 3 minutes, while Sloukas went coast-to-coast to cut it to 62-73.

Fenerbahce kept its level of defense, not allowing any field goals, all while Datome hit a baseline jumper and Guduric added a corner triple to cut within 71-77. Ulanovas had a steal and a dunk to score first Zalgiris’s field goal of the quarter with 3:18 left, but the hosts continued their charge and a tough layup by Vesely got Fenerbahce to 75-79 with 2:10 left. Sloukas and Vesely connected on an alley-oop dunk, and Datome nailed a jumper with 38.9 seconds to tie it at 80-80. After a timeout, however, Ulanovas beat the shot clock with a layup in traffic, before Guduric stepped out of bounds while trying to create a shot with 4.3 seconds to go. Datome had one last chance to win it for Fenerbahce, but his long off-balanced three only hit the front rim as Zalgiris celebrated a big upset.