By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Whenever Zalgiris Kaunas plays at home, they performed better, and against a disjointed Olympiacos team, the pride of Lithuania got an easy 94-69 win. The two sides are now tied at a 9-14 record; two wins away from the eighth spot of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings.
It was a team effort for the hosts with Arturas Milaknis (19 p.) and Thomas Walkup (12 p. 5 as.) setting the tone early.
Also, KC Rivers (12 p.), Lukas Lekavicius (11 p.), Edgaras Ulanovas (11 p.) and Martinas Geben (12 p.) scored in double digits. Milaknis made five out of seven threes; Rivers made four out of five, and Zalgiris in total finished the game with 63% from beyond the arc (14/22), tying their record with 14 made threes.
Zalgiris had a good start with a 22-17 lead after the first quarter, and things got even better after a 14-5 run (36-22).
The hosts were shooting 60% and made just one turnover. Still, Olympiacos managed to cut the lead to nine (46-37) at halftime.
However, Zalgiris once again stretched their lead to 14 (57-43) at the start of the second half and never looked back.
The hosts led by 24 (69-45) just before the end of the third quarter, while both Vassilis Spanoulis (ankle) and Taylor Rochestie (knee) had to leave the court with injuries. Sasha Vezenkov scored 14 points for the losing side.
“We lost our creativity.”
“Rochestie is expected to miss at least three weeks of action. However, he will have an MRI, and the same applies to Spanoulis; we will know tomorrow,” said Olympiacos coach Giorgos Bartzokas about his two guards.
“Losing those two players means that we lost all our creativity, and we didn’t have other guards with the same level of experience,” added Bartzokas. “Of course, we should have also played better defense.”
“Congratulations to our fans for one more sold out and to my players for one of their best games of the season,” said Zalgiris coach Sarunas Jasikevicius.
Giorgos Printezis also missed the game due to a ribs injury that also prevented him from playing last week in Olympiacos‘ win over KIROLBET Baskonia.
Photo credit: EuroLeague