Zalgiris finishes season with home win 9

Zalgiris Kaunas never trailed in taking care of Panathinaikos Athens 93-78 on Thursday night at Zalgirio Arena.

A 14-0 run early in the second half helped the Lithuanian champs pull away for good and the lead reached 24 in the fourth quarter as Zalgiris cruised to victory. The result gave Zalgiris a 17-17 record at the end of the EuroLeague Regular Season. Panathinaikos dropped to 11-21 and still has two games remaining.

Lukas Lekavicius paced the Zalgiris scorers with 20 points on 3-of-5 three-point shooting, Thomas Walkup tallied 18 points and 5 assists and Rokas Jokubaitis added 10 points.

Nemanja Nedovic scored 17 points and Ben Bentil 13 for Panathinaikos in defeat.

Marius Grigonis came out firing with the game’s first 5 points before Nedovic opened the scoring with a three for the Greens. Georgios Papagiannis’s alley-oop slam tied it at 7-7. The hosts reeled off the next 12 points to take a commanding lead. Dinos Mitoglou ended a 4-minute Panathinaikos drought with a dunk, but a triple by Patricio Garino kept the hosts cruising. Garino remained hot with 5 more points to make it 27-14 after 10 minutes.

The lead reached 15 early in the second quarter before Mario Hezonja stepped up with back-to-back threes to narrow the gap. A Zalgiris timeout did little to cool the visitors; Nedovic drained a triple and fed Hezonja for a fastbreak slam in a 0-10 charge that made it 33-30. Lekavicius revived the hosts with a pair of triples and a shot in the lane to raise the difference to 41-33 midway through the second quarter. Ioannis Papapetrou and Mitouglou helped get Panathinaikos within 52-47 at the break.

A jumper by Mitoglou got the Greens within one possession at the start of the second half, but back-to-back threes by Karolis Lukosiunas triggered a 14-0 Zalgiris run as the hosts pulled away again. A three by Eleftherios Bochoridis change little for Panathinaikos. A layup by Marek Blazevic made it 71-52 midway through the three quarter. Nedovic helped rally the Greens to 74-60 through three quarters.

A three by Nedovic gave the Greens hope at the start of the fourth quarter, but baskets by Walkup and Geben kept Zalgiris in total control. A pair of threes by Jokubaitis took the margin into the 20s. Lekavicius also hit from downtown to make it 88-64 with 5 minutes to play. Panathinaikos battled to reduce the deficit in the remaining minutes, but the outcome was already clear and Zalgiris finished its season on a winning note.