Zalgiris has no luck in Top 16 opener 0
Ramunas Butautas suffered his first Euroleague defeat, whilst at the helm of Zalgiris. The Lithuanians slumped to a 65:89 loss to Asseco Prokom on Thursday evening in Top 16 opener for both sides in Gdynia, Poland.
Dainius Salenga led Zalgiris with 15 points and 8 rebounds, while Mario Delas also scored in double-digits scoring 14 in his Euroleague debut. Mirza Begic started the game strong, but faded later in the game to end up with 8, six of which came in the first quarter, however the 220 cm big man grabbed only one rebound.
Both Zalgiris point guards, Mantas Kalnietis and Aleksandar Capin, scored 8 point each. The Slovenian made only 2 of 13 field goals, including all six missed long-range attempts, often rushing them, but still managed to dish out 6 assists.
David Logan paced Asseco Prokom with 20 points and 8 assists, as Daniel Ewing contributed with 16 of his own. Ronnie Burrell finished with 13 points and 7 rebounds, enjoying the space given to him by Zalgiris’ defense and hitting some wide open mid-range shots as the Lithuanians were instructed by the coach Butautas to let him shoot those shots during a time out.
The game started with a one-man-show of David Logan, who scored 12 of the first 15 Prokom’s points to give the Poles a lead from the very beginning. Zalgiris was given a fatal blow after the break as the Polish side went on a 10:0 run, which got the score to 58:38.
Zalgiris played without two key players, as Travis Watson and Tadas Klimavicius stayed in Kaunas because of injuries while Povilas Butkevicius, who’s feeling back aches, played very shortly in Poland. This left Zalgiris with only two frontline players – Mirza Begic and Mario Delas.
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