A “stormy” Zalgiris from the second period onwards, swept 85-67 the bad Villeurbanne in Kaunas for the 28th matchday of the Euroleague and remained in the eighth privileged position.
The French entered the court strongly and led 3-0, 8-2 and 12-4 with offensive superiority from all positions and first “violins” of Caudi and Taius in this period. Noah made it 14-5 and De Bost 17-9 for the French champions in the poor regional defense of the Lithuanians. Brazdeikis reduced 14-19 and Schmitz 15-20 for Zalgiris, having found the solutions, with Matthews ending the first quarter at 16-22.
Led by Brazdeikis, Zalgiris went on a 7-0 run at the start of the second period to pull within 23-22. Villeurbanne responded with a 5-0 run to make it +4 and De Bost made it 15-20 with DJ Parker’s correct player selections inside the home side’s racket, with Villeurbanne holding steady at +1 to +3. But, there Zalgiris found the solutions from the perimeter and with a 12-0 run it reached 41-32 and with the many offensive options from a distance with individual scores of 6-5 it ended the first half at 47-37. The hosts had 7/11 shots and 19 rebounds and the French 14/15 shots.
A 4-0 run by Zalgiris at the beginning of the third period made it +14 for the Lithuanians and a 7-0 run, led by Ulanovas, made it 57-40 for the “greens”. De Bost starred in a 5-0 Villeurbanne run for -12. Zalgiris continued to find solutions from many players and with a 7-0 run, led by Lekavicius, ended the quarter at 65-50.
Ulanovas and Polonara brought +19 at the start of the fourth period, but two three-pointers from Mathews reduced it to -13. Zalgiris maintained +14 to +16 in this period and Dimsa’s three-pointer made it 80-62. He brought +20 and the match ended at 85-67.
Source: Sport Fm
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