Zalgiris rallies from 20 down to beat ALBA 16
Zalgiris Kaunas remained undefeated at home in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season by rallying from a 20-point deficit to beat ALBA Berlin in front of a sellout crowd at Zalgirio Arena. Zalgiris rallied to defeat 88-81 to take its record to 3-3 in the standings.
Edgaras Ulanovas led the winners with 21 points. Keenan Evans added 15 while Rolands Smits and Ignas Brazdeikis each had 14 for Zalgiris.
Jaleen Smith scored 14 points for ALBA, which dropped to 3-3 with its third consecutive defeat. Tamir Blat added 12 points and Louis Olinde 10.
ALBA led 23-43 near halftime but Zalgiris turned things around for the club’s biggest comeback for victory this century.
Blatt struck from downtown and Olinde added back-to-back triples to give ALBA an early 8-13 lead. Procida had the first 5 points in a 0-9 run that made it a double-digit game, 10-22. Procida kept pacing ALBA, getting help from Ben Lammers and Johannes Thiemann to boost ALBA’s lead to 13-32. Brazdeikis, Tyler Cavanaugh and Lukas Lekavicius fueled a 14-1 run that Smits capped with a triple to give Zalgiris hope, 37-44, right after halftime.
Blatt rescued ALBA with consecutive three-pointers and Smith soon gave ALBA fresh air at 46-59. Zalgiris found a go-to guy in Evans, who buried 4 three-pointers in under 3 minutes midway through the final quarter to tie it at 69-69. Smits and Bradzeikis soon put Zalgiris in charge, 77-74, with over 2 minutes left. Ulanovas made the difference with a big triple and a wild three-point play down the stretch.
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