Valencia holds off Zalgiris for first road win 85
Valencia Basket hit 13 three-pointers on the way to its first road win of the season, holding off host Zalgiris Kaunas 82-86 on Friday at the Zalgirio Arena.
Louis Labeyrie scored a career-high 22 points, nailing 4 of 5 three-pointers, while Quino Colom had 12 points and 9 assists for the winners.
Edgaras Ulanovas finished with 16 points for Zalgiris. Thomas Walkup had 15 points, Jock Landale 12 and Zach LeDay 10 in a losing effort.
Labeyrie and Ulanovas scored 5 points apiece to get things going before Bojan Dubljevic scored twice inside and Colom nailed from long range to make it 7-12. LeDay revived the hosts, stringing together 6 points before Ulanovas capped an 8-0 run with a baseline dunk to make it 19-16 late in the first quarter.
Sam Van Rossom replied with a triple, but Zalgiris extended the margin early in the second quarter as Arturas Milaknis struck from deep. Landale and Lukas Lekavicius combined to score 8 points then to open a 32-25 Zalgiris advantage. Maurice Ndour scored 7 consecutive points to keep Valencia in touch before back-to-back threes from Alberto Abalde and Colom cut the difference to 40-38. Another triple from Colom got the visitors within 48-47 at halftime.
The teams traded leads as Aaron Doornekamp and Walkup downed triples early on, but Valencia just kept hitting from downtown. Labeyrie buried a pair and Van Rossom knocked one down to beat the shot clock and make it 55-59. Another triple from Doornekamp helped made it 57-64 going into the final quarter before close-range baskets from Mike Tobey and Ndour increased it to 57-68.
Milaknis snapped a 2-15 Valencia run, but Vanja Marinkovic converted his triple into a four-point play, extending the Valencia lead to 59-72. Walkup and K.C. Rivers hit tough triples as Zalgiris stepped up on defense and LeDay’s fastbreak dunk made it 70-75, firing up the crowd. Labeyrie’s fourth triple gave Valencia more breathing room, however, at 70-78. Three-pointers from Rivers and Ulanovas got Zalgiris as close as 82-84 with 10 seconds left, but Valencia hung on at the finish.
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