Zalgiris with a run in the fourth period defeated Red Star 79-74 at “Zalgirio Arena” for the second matchday of the Euroleague and reached “2 on 2” in this year’s competition, leaving the Serbians at 1-1.
The players of Kazis Maksvitis were behind in the first three quarters, but in the fourth period the Lithuanians with consecutive three-pointers and streaks found themselves in front even with +6 and withstood the pressure of the Serbian champions.
Leaders of the winners were Schmitz with 18, Ulanovas with 25 and Butkevicius with 12 points. For the Serbs, Mitrovic stood out with 16 and Teodosic with 15 points.
The match
The offensive versatility of the Lithuanians at the beginning of the match brought +9 with Ulanovas doing the work from the perimeter and the rest inside the Serbian racket. A 4-0 run by Schmitz inside the Serbian racket brought +10 for the Lithuanian champion. The Serbians found the solutions and went on a 6-0 run for -4. At 19-13, Teodosic took over on his own and fueled an 8-0 run for Asteras, who ended the first quarter at 19-21.
A 4-0 run by Astera at the start of the second period brought +6 for Dusko Ivanovic’s men. Zalgiris responded with a 5-0 run for -1 and back-to-back three-pointers on either side kept it +1 to +3 for the Serbian champions. Napier took his “weapon” and brought +8 for Red Star, but the offensive versatility of the hosts brought 35-38 at the end of the half. The Lithuanians had 18 rebounds and the Serbians 11/13 shots and 22 rebounds.
Schmitz with a 4-0 run brought +1 for Zalgiris at the beginning of the third period, but Mitrovic with his own show brought +3 for the “red and white” of Belgrade. The Serbs had found plenty of options and kept +5 with Boloboi as the star in this period. Despite Mitrovic’s efforts, Asteras finished at 50-56 at quarter-time.
Asteras maintained a +7 to +9 at the beginning of the fourth period, but at 54-63 Butkevicius with seven consecutive points reduced it to 61-64 and two consecutive three-pointers by Manek and Schmitz brought it to 67-63 and made it 13-0 the streak of the Lithuanians. Nedovic “unstuck” the Serbs and reduced them to -1, but Manek had found his hand and went on a personal 5-0 run at 72-66. Asteras cut to 72-70 with a 4-0 run, Zalgiris maintained +2 with +4 inside the racket and Butkevicius’ two shots helped make the final 79-74.
The quarters:19-21, 35-38, 50-56, 79-74
The statistics
Source: Sport Fm
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