By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Despite injury woes which kept three players out of Zalgiris‘ roster, the Lithuanian squad dominated Gran Canaria in a 98-64 home win in Round 25 of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
Edgaras Ulanovas scored 18 points for Zalgiris‘ squad which registered a season-high in EuroLeague. Thomas Walkup added 12 and Deon Thompson 11 points. For Gran Canaria, Marcus Eriksson scored 13 and Jacob Wiley ten points.
Zalgiris focused their offensive effort closer to the basket with good ball movement which cut straight through the Spaniard’s defense who on the other side couldn’t find their offensive groove. Zalgiris was up 25-10 after ten minutes and quickly after hit the 26-point margin (39-13) but Gran Canaria soften the blow a bit before the break with a couple of shots from deep (46-27).
“Not many things to say. It’s very clear that to compete and be in the game you have to be at the same energy level as Zalgiris and we surely weren’t at that level. With this difference in the first quarter, it’s impossible to compete. We missed a lot of open shots, Zalgiris played very well and I think the key was the energy”, coach Victor Garcia noted.
The hosts didn’t cool off during the halftime rest. In fact, they came out ‘red hot’ opening the half with three shots from deep and banking six of them in total during the third quarter. They improved their lead to 77-45 in front of the final period and didn’t have any trouble securing the game.
Coach Sarunas Jasikevicius kept it short but was fully satisfied with his players’ performance: “Congratulations to our players. One of the best games this season, if not the best. A much-needed victory and this is the way we gotta continue.”
Zalgiris improved to 10-15 keeping their playoffs chances alive while Gran Canaria holds a 6-19 record.
Photo Credit: Turkish Airlines EuroLeague