Zalgiris starts EuroLeague with thriller defeat in Tel Aviv 17
EuroLeague came back for the 2022-23 season with Round 1 game in Tel Aviv for Zalgiris Kaunas. The match against Maccabi featured an intense battle of runs as the leading team changed numerous times throughout the game, but in the end the green-and-whites came up short, 83-84.
In his EuroLeague debut, forward Bonzie Colson led Maccabi with 16 points and 4 blocks. Wade Baldwin followed with 15 points despite fouling out. Lorenzo Brown notched a 13-point, 11-assist double-double, and Alex Poythress had 12 points, including the game-winning free throws.
Former Maccabi guard Keenan Evans led Zalgiris with 17 points, while Kevarrius Hayes had 16 and 9 rebounds.
The teams traded leads out of the gate until Edgaras Ulanovas tied it 13-13 on a three-point play. Brown and Darrun Hilliard shot Maccabi ahead 13-19, but Hayes downed an alley-oop dunk as Zalgiris bit back, 20-19. The scoring piled up until Hilliard’s buzzer-beater closed the quarter 27-30.
Behind great second-quarter rebounding, Ignas Brazdeikis and Rolands Smits pushing Zalgiris ahead by as many as 7 points to lead 48-46 at halftime.
Colson and Baldwin keyed Maccabi’s 19-5 run to a 63-65 advantage after the break. Tomas Dimsa helped Zalgiris get the next 8 points, but Josh Nebo kept Maccabi up 65-71 after 30 minutes.
Maccabi’s lead zoomed to 68-80 with 6 minutes left, but it was all Zalgiris then until Dimsa’s basket put the visitors up 83-82 lead with 1:27 left. The only points after that were Poythress’ free throws on Brown’s 11th assist, tying a Maccabi club record. Zalgiris shot twice again, and Arnas Butkevicius even found the net on a broken play at the finish, but instant replay showed it was after the buzzer.
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