Bitci Baskonia lost 72-68 against Zalgiris the party corresponding to the 13th round of the Euroleague which played this Thursday at the Zalgirio Arena in Kaunas (Lithuania). Is the third consecutive loss that the Alava team fits into this competition.
Zalgiris started the game better and obtained their first advantages (8-4 and 12-7), but Baskonia reacted and closed the gap (16-15), reaching one point. The first quarter ended with a result of 21-19 favorable to the local team.
A good Baskonia was seen at the start of the second quarter, and the team led by Neven Spahija was ahead on the scoreboard (24-25) for the first time in the match. However, in the last minutes of the quarter, Baskonia did not hit the attack, lost several balls, and Zalgiris opened the gap doing damage by scoring triples. The Lithuanian team went into halftime with an eight point advantage (40-32).
Baskonia did not get off to a good start in the third quarter and Zalgiris fell to 11 points (45-34). Although it cost him to get back into the game, the team led by Spahija began to play better from minute 25 of the match and with a good Sedekerskis reduced the disadvantage to two points (45-43). In the final stretch of the quarter the local team prevailed again and the last quarter was reached with a score of 51-46.
It was difficult for the Alava team to reduce the disadvantage at the beginning of the last quarter. Zalgiris were solid and Spahija’s men could not find a way to harm their rival. However, with three minutes to go until the end of the game, Granger appeared to score two triples in a row and tie the game (63-63). It seemed that Baskonia reacted, but they made many mistakes again, and the victory went to the Lithuanian team (72-68).
Datasheet:
72 – Zalgiris Kaunas (19 + 13 + 14 + 22): Kalnietis (10), Strelnieks (5), Milaknis (6), Cavanough (9) y Nebo (10) -cinco initiali, Lekavicius (13), Dragic (-), Blazevic (8), Webster (4), Miniotas (2) and Ulanovas (5).
68 – Battles of the Basque Country (21 + 19 + 11 + 21): Granger (11), Baldwin (7), Giedraitis (6), Sedekerskis (7) and Enoch (13) -starting five-, Lamar Peters (10), Fontecchio (12), Marinkovic (-), Nnoko (2) and Kurucs (-).
Referees: Borys Ryzhyk (Ukraine), Elias Koromilas (Greece) and Igor Dragojevic (Montenegro). Without eliminated.
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