Zalgiris Kaunas edge past Unicaja 67-65 in a thriller: Euroleague Recap
Zalgiris Kaunas have looked offbeat throughout the Turkish Airlines Euroleague 2011 and they might not even make it to the second round.
However, they certainly are making life difficult for other teams. On Wednesday night it was Unicaja, who were shocked as Kaunas collected their second win of the tournament by squeaking past 67-65 in a thriller played at the Zalgirio
Arena.
After this win, Kaunas have improved to 2-5 and need to win all their remaining games to reach the top 16.
Kaunas completely dominated the first three quarters and were heading to an easy win, however Unicaja put up an outstanding show in the last quarter and coming from behind, almost pulled off a memorable win. Both teams were neck
to neck at 65 with few seconds remaining in the game, but a pivotal jam by Sony Weems at the end overshadowed all the good work by Unicaja and deprived them of a magnificent victory.
Sony Weems fittingly, was the most outstanding player from the night and marshalled the winning team with game high 18 points and 11 rebounds. Marko Popovic and Ty Lawson played the supporting role to perfection and pounded 11
and 10 points respectively.
From Unicaja, Gerald Fitch scored 15, including 6 for 8 from the stripe, and pulled down 6 rebounds. Kristaps Valters and Joel Freeland both added 12 each, while Luka Zoric had 11 for the visitors.
The hosts got off to a great start.
Sony Weems and Paulius Jankunas constituted a 10-0 run, which ensured, Kaunas stay ahead of the opponents throughout the first quarter. Kristaps and Mindaugas continued the attack from other side, however the initial burst never
allowed the visitors to get ahead and the quarter ended with Kaunas leading by 19-11.
The Second and third quarters were no different from the first one as for most of the time, Kaunas managed to maintain a double digit lead. The second quarter ended with Zalgiris leading at 35-24 and the third with them in front
again at 50-42.
Jorge Garbajosa drilled a three for Unicaja early in the fourth to reduce the deficit to 50-45, however back to back strikes from Robertas Javtokas again made it 54-45 in the favour of Kaunas.
The game was slipping away from the visitors quickly but then Gerald, Kristaps and Joel Freeland jumped in to rescue and reeled off a ferocious 15-3 run to get Unicaja ahead by 65-63 with a minute remaining in the game.
Two free throws from Popovic levelled the score at 65 all but in the end Weems pulled a floater and sealed the victory for his team.
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