Zalgiris shoots the lights out against Baskonia 29
Zalgiris Kaunas outlasted Baskonia Vitoria with a 92-73 victory on Tuesday at Zalgirio Arena. Zalgiris lifted its record to 7-7, ending its five-game home losing streak less than a week after ending an overall six-game skid. Baskonia fell to 6-7 with its second loss in succession.
Arturas Milaknis made 5 of Zalgiris’ 18 three-point shots to lead all scorers with 15 points. Lukas Lekavicius added 13, Joffrey Lauvergne 12, Nigel Hayes and Marius Grigonis 11 each.
Baskonia got 14 points from Youssoupha Fall, 12 from Alec Peters and 10 each from Luca Vildoza and Zoran Dragic.
Fall and Lauvergne traded short baskets before Achille Polonara and Hayes did the same from deep for a 5-5 tie. Fall kept scoring but 8 points from Grigonis put Zalgiris up 13-10. Lauvergne and Peters split 9 points before Milaknis struck from deep at 20-15. Tonye Jekiri and Rokas Giedraitis shot Baskonia closer, but after Jankunas and Dragic traded triples, Lekavicius hit a floater as Zalgiris led 25-22 after 10 minutes.
Giedraitis tied it on the second quarter’s first shot, but Hayes and Lekavicius, from deep, established a 33-27 lead for the hosts. Triples by Thomas Walkup and Milaknis would stretch the difference to double digits before Vildoza copied them to trim the difference to 44-36 at the half.
Polonara and Pierria Henry got Baskonia within 47-40 after the break, but Milaknis was ready with his fourth and fifth triples to make it 55-40. Grigonis hit Zalgiris’s again from long range and Lekavicius downed 3 free throws to make it 61-44. Peters and Rokas Jokubaitis exchanged threes and Lauvergne dropped a hook for a game-high lead, until then, of 68-47 after three quarters.
Lauvergne, Augustine Rubit and Jokubaitis upped the difference to 74-47 before Arturs Kurucs downed a triple and Henry dunked off a steal for the visitors. Hayes returned with a triple before Fall finished twice in close for 5 points at 79-57 with 5 minutes left. When Lekavicius finished a broken play with Zalgiris’s 16th three-pointer the lead was back to 82-59 and there was not enough time for Baskonia to mount a comeback.
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