He dismantled Virtus and Zalgiris is still hoping

With several runs and an upset in the second half, Zalgiris swept 96-81 the bad Virtus Bologna at “Zalgirio Arena” for the 20th game of the Euroleague and, with a 12-18 record, climbed to 12th place and -2 from the play- in, leaving the Italians out of the privileged six with a 17-13 record, looking for whether or not they will qualify directly to the quarterfinals of the competition.

Luka Banki’s players reached +6 at the end of the first half, but with a counterattack in the third and fourth periods, the Lithuanians reached double-digit differences and the final +15.

Leading the winners were Sumner with 16, Evans with 14, Hayes with 13 and Giedraitis, Birutis with 12 points. For the Italians, Sengelia stood out with 19, Lomacs with 15 and Abbas with 12 points.

The match

Consecutive three-pointers on either side made it 6-6 at the start of the match and 8-11 and 10-14 for Virtus afterwards with Dobrich starring in this period for the Italians. With a 4-0 run, Virtus led 18-12 and 20-15 with Belinelli, but with Sumner as the star, Zalgiris went on a 5-0 run and tied the game at 22-22 at the end of the first quarter.

Dimsa’s two consecutive 3-pointers made it 28-24 for the Lithuanians at the start of the second period, but a 7-0 run by Sengelia and Abbas made it 28-31 for Luka Banki’s players. Zalgiris responded with a 5-0 run to make it 33-31, but Lomacs went on a personal 5-0 run to make it 33-36. Evans’ 3-pointer made it 38-38, but Virtus’ 4-0 run made it 38-42 and Lomacs’ 3-pointer made it 39-44 and another 5-0 run by the Italians ended the half at 43-49. Zalgiris had 8/9 shots and 16 rebounds and Virtus 11/19 two-pointers, 12/12 shots and 19 rebounds.

With many solutions in the opponent’s racket, Zalgiris went on a 6-0 run at the beginning of the third period and tied the game at 49-49. With a 9-0 streak and a total of 15-0 with Biroutis as the main protagonist, Zalgiris reached 58-49. Sengelia took the situation into his own hands and with consecutive baskets reduced the lead to 61-57 and Paiola’s three-pointer to 61-60 in the 6-0 run of the Italians. Belinelli tied the game at 63-63, but the Americans from Zalgiris went on a 5-0 run for the final 68-63 in the quarter.

Hayes’ 3-pointer made it 71-63 for the Lithuanian champions at the start of the fourth quarter. A 5-0 run by the home team brought it 76-66 with solutions from the perimeter at this point, with Lekavicius getting “fire” from 6.75 and bringing it 79-69. Ulanovas made it 81-69 in Banki’s bad defense, Evans brought +13 and with a new 6-0 run Zalgiris made it 93-77 at 1’01’ before the end. Montvilla’s 3-pointer made it 96-79 to reach the final 96-81.

The quarters: 22-22, 43-49, 68-63, 96-81

The statistics