Real’s defense stops Zalgiris 25
Real Madrid returned to its winning ways by downing Zalgiris Kaunas 70-58 at WiZink Center on Thursday. Real improved to 16-10 in the standings and grabbed its second win against the Lithuanian champs this season. Zalgiris dropped to 14-12.
Gabriel Deck led the winners with 14 points and Jaycee Carroll and Trey Thompkins each added 12 for Real.
Paulius Jankunas led Zalgiris with 13 points and Nigel Hayes added 11.
Rokas Jokubaitis got Zalgiris going with a layup. Augustine Rubit added a baseline jumper and Hayes made a layup for a 2-6 lead. Nico Laprovittola struck twice from downtown and Edy Tavares followed a jumper with a put-back basket in a 10-0 run that put Real in charge, 12-6. Marius Grigonis hit a jumper, but Usman Garuba and Fabien Causeur each sank a triple, prompting the guests to call timeout at 18-8. Jankunas downed a four-meter shot and added a three-pointer to bring Zalgiris within 21-13 after 10 minutes.
Carroll joined the three-point shootout and Alberto Abalde dunked, but Hayes struck twice from beyond the arc to get the visitors even closer, 26-21. Thompkins stepped up with a backdoor layup and followed Carroll’s running floater with a jumper to restore a 32-23 Real edge. Carlos Alocen took over with a coast-to-coast basket and Carroll scored again, but Jokubaitis and Thomas Walkup got Zalgiris within 36-31 at halftime.
Laprovittola hit a three-pointer soon after the break. Walkup downed a jumper and got help from Rubit and Hayes to climb within 39-38. Real found a go-to guy in Deck, who struck twice from beyond the arc in an 8-0 run that gave the hosts fresh air at 47-38. Lukas Lekavicius buried a floater, but Thompkins and Alocen kept Los Blancos way ahead, 51-42, after 30 minutes.
Lekavicius floated another one in early in the fourth quarter. Carroll answered with a mid-range jumper and Thompkins improved Joffrey Lauvergne’s alley-oop layup with a corner triple. Carroll knocked down a stop-and-pop triple, Tavares added a put-back layup and Thompkins sealed the outcome at 64-48 midway through the fourth quarter. Jankunas kept pushing Zalgiris, but he didn’t find much help around and Deck buried his fourth shot from downtown to make sure Real cruised to a well-deserved win.
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