Zalgiris steps up in second half, defeats Ventspils 0
After two quarters of intense battle Zalgiris killed the game in the third period to join Lietuvos Rytas in the final of the Baltic Basketball League (BBL) Final Four. Kaunas came back from behind and took an 86:74 (22:17, 16:28, 29:8, 19:21) victory over Ventspils.
Janis Strelnieks knocked a half court buzzer-beater to increase the Latvian side’s lead to 45:38 as teams headed off to the dressing rooms for the halftime talk.
Zalgiris was quick to bounce back and used a 17:3 run to turn the game around. Travis Watson scored six points in a row in the end of that stretch as Zalgiris went up by 7 – 55:48.
Allowing only 8 points in the third period and scoring 29 themselves, Zalgiris didn’t allow a small group of Ventspils supporters, who have come to Vilnius, any hopes of a magical turnaround.
Marcus Brown top-scored for Zalgiris with 17 points, Tadas Klimavicius fought hard and collected 16 while Travis Watson finished the game with 14. Aleksandar Capin had 9 as Martynas Pocius and Dainius Salenga both added 8.
Ventspils’ Janis Strelnieks had a team-high 16 points and Mareks Jurevicus netted 12. Dairis Bertans scored 9 while Armands Skele and Ronalds Zakis ended the match with 8 a piece.
Darius Maskoliunas: “As expected, the game wasn’t easy. I’m very happy with the third quarter, because we defended like we should for the whole 40 minutes. We balanced out after a couple of substitutions, Ventspils caught fire and passed us in the end of the first half. We managed to use all 12 players, so we might have saved some energy in the tank, which will be very useful tomorrow.
Travis Watson is a little ill, it was a bit hard for him today. I’m hoping for the game to improve and improve. We want to play the way we did in the beginning of the season.”
Tadas Klimavicius: “The coach’s plan worked very well on defense. We’ll try to have a good sleep, recover some energy and fight for the first place tomorrow. Of course it’s possible to defeat Lietuvos Rytas, that’s what we came here for.”
Silvano Poropat: “We played very well in the first half. The first quarter was a little sleepy, but we defended very well in the second – that allowed us to feel freely on the offensive end. We played the pick and roll well, moved the ball and made open shots. Zalgiris came out with better defense after the interval and we struggled to collect points. Our players got tired, lost the concentration and made some wrong decisions. Zalgiris was a stronger team. We are waiting for tomorrow’s game.”
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