Zalgirs rolls past Panathinaikos in Athens 10

Zalgiris Kaunas collected its third straight victory as it rolled past Panathinaikos Athens 83-96 on the road Tuesday in a Round 18 makeup game.

Zalgiris showed its surprise triumph over Real Madrid last week was for real by taking the first quarter 10-29 and never being threatened thereafter to improve to 6-19 with its second consecutive road win. Edgaras Ulanovas scored a career-high 22 points and Joffrey Lauvergne collected 17 points and 12 rebounds for the winners. Arturas Milaknis added 16 points and Tyler Cavanaugh tallied 15 points and 9 rebounds for the Lithuanian champs.

Nemanja Nedovic poured in 23 points in the loss for Panathinaikos, which dropped to 7-18 after its two-game win streak was snapped. Howard Sant-Roos added 16 points and Georgios Papagiannis tallied 11 points and 7 rebounds in defeat.

Ulanovas opened the scoring for the visitors and his second score made it 0-7. Vasilis Kavvadas converted a three-point play for Panathinaikos’s first points after nearly two minutes. Karolis Lukosiunas knocked down two triples and Cavanaugh had 5 points to push the lead to double figures, 5-15. Georgios Papagiannis threw down an alley-oop dunk as Panathinaikos climbed within 9-15. Zalgiris, however, finished the quarter with a 1-14 surge including 2 triples from Milaknis for a 10-29 advantage after 10 minutes.

Kavvadas got Panathinaikos on the board to start the second quarter. The Zalgiris momentum continued at the other end with 5 points from Lauvergne as the cushion swelled to 14-37. Panathinaikos got a three-point play from Nedovic and a triple from Leonidas Kaselakis to cut the margin to 24-39. Zalgiris got back to some consistency with a pair of Lauvergne baskets and the visitors went into the intermission ahead 34-52.

After Jeremy Evans opened the second half scoring, Zalgiris continued to roll with Lauvergne scoring 4 points and Cavanaugh hitting a triple for a 40-63 advantage. Nedovic would not let his team go down without a fight; he made 3 three-pointers and 2foul shots to pull within 56-71. Ulanovas answered with a three-pointer only to see Nedovic drain another triple and the score was 61-76 after 30 minutes.

Sant-Roos knocked down an early three-pointer in the final frame only to see Milaknis drain back-to-back triples and the cushion reached 64-84. Papagiannis tried to get the hosts back into the game with 6 points in an 8-2 spurt to trim the gap to 72-86 with 5 minutes to play. But Panathinaikos managed just 2 free throws over the next 2 minutes and there would be no comeback.