Zalgiris Kaunas draw first blood; Beat
Brose Baskets 81-70 – Euroleague Recap
Instead of tears, this time there were huge smiles on the faces of the Zalgiris Kaunas players as they left a sellout crowd at the Zalgirio Arena ecstatic with an 81-70 win over the Brose Baskets.
With this win, Kaunas earned their first victory of the 2011-12 Turkish Airlines Euroleague regular season, snapping a three-game losing streak. Brose Baskets, meanwhile, have dropped to 1-3 in the group B, with three defeats in
a row.
“We were a bit scared of this game,” Kaunas guard Marko Popovic said, "It was definitely hard after three consecutive losses.”
Kaunas (1-3) relied on an outstanding performance from Sonny Weems, who led all scorers with 22 points on 4 for 7 shooting from three-point range. Weems also grabbed six rebounds in the victory. Marko Popovic had 13 points, three
rebounds and three assists while Milovan Rakovic added 12 points on 6 for 9 shooting from two-point range and pulled down six rebounds for Zalgiris.
Predrag Suput led Brose with 19 points and five rebounds. Suput came off the bench with 4 for 6 from two-point range, 3 for 6 from downtown and 2 for 2 from free throw line. Marcus Slaughter chipped in 11 points and pulled down
eight rebounds while Julius Jenkins ended with 10 points in the loss.
The biggest difference in the stats came in rebounds, with 38 for Kaunas - including six each by Weems and Rakovic - to just 29 for Brose Baskets.
Brose Baskets managed to get its big men involved early in the first quarter and held an 11-4 lead. Kaunas came back onto the track though and trimmed the margin to four at 13-9.
Javtokas and Sonny Weems then stepped up with seven consecutive points to give the hosts their first lead, 16-15. Kaunas set the crowd on fire as Milovan Rakovic and Ty Lawson joined the line-up and pushed their lead to 26-19.
Tadas Klimavicius closed the opening period on a jumper as Zalgiris maintained their seven-point lead, 28-21, after 10 minutes.
Brose found their way early in the second quarter to make it a three-point game, 30-27, but Kaunas were effective on offense. With Weems firing, they had the game under control and during the next couple of minutes, Kaunas raced
onto a 37-29 advantage.
Casey Jacobsen and Suput turned it on for the Brose and made it a one-point contest again, 37-36. Both teams fought hard tied the score at 43 before Weems shined with a three-point play to make it 46-43 at the break.
Kaunas opened the third quarter and a 7-2 run to widen their lead to 53-45. Suput did not quit and scored from every angle of the court to keep his team within the game, 53-49. Mantas Kalnietis hit a three-pointer to make it 56-49
and Kaunas kept Brose Baskets under control for rest of the quarter. Rakovic appeared again with a basket at the buzzer to give Zalgiris a 60-53 lead after 30 minutes.
Brose Baskets never surrendered in the fourth quarter, made it hard for Kaunas to score and pulled themselves with in two, 64-62. Zalgiris then outscored Brose 6-2 to keep their home crowd alive with a 70-64 edge. Kaunas never
looked back again for rest of the period and walked away with their first victory of the regular season.
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