Darussafaka Dogus made it three straight EuroLeague wins on the road as they came from 11 points down to edge Zalgiris 83-80 in Kaunas.
Adrien Moerman and Scottie Wilbekin scored 16 points each. for the visitors, who improved to 3-0 on the road this season and 3-2 overall. The loss was the third in a row for Zalgiris, which fell to 1-4.
Darussafaka Dogus had to come back from a poor first half showing, where they trailed for the majority and were at times down by double-digits.
“I thought we really responded well to a very bad first half,” said Darussafaka Dogus coach David Blatt. “It’s not easy to play in this gym and I truly believe that a lot of teams will not win here. So for us to come back the way we did and to hang in there the way we did, with all the difficulties, that says something good about the team.
“We didn’t move the ball in the first half obviously, we only scored 26 points. That’s not a real good sign. We’re a team that can score; we finished the game with a 54-point second half. That shows that we have that capability. But it’s not easy in the EuroLeague. There’s no easy games.”
Leo Westermann and Paulius Jankunas paced Zalgiris with 21 points apiece. For Westermann, that marked a career high.
In perhaps one of the games of the season thus far, Anadolu Efes overcame Panathinaikos 91-83 after two periods of overtime in Istanbul.
Thomas Huertel led the winners with 17 points as they go to 2-3, but the hosts were forced into an extra session of overtime as KC Rivers floated into the lane to finish on the buzzer to set up a second overtime quarter but Panathinaikos’ resistance finally wore off as Tyler Honeycutt drained a clutch three to give the home side an 82-77 lead which they built to gain the victory.
Rivers led Panathinaikos with 15 points.
Baskonia held Crvena Zvezda to just two points in the final six minutes of play as they recorded a 70-63 victory in Belgrade.
Baskonia grabbed control in the opening minutes, and never relinquished the lead or control of the game, with their cushion peaking at 14 points. Shane Larkin led in victory with 16 points, and also had six assists and four steals. Rodrigue Beaubois also netted 16 points for the winners.
The win improves Baskonia to 3-2, while Red Star dropped to 2-3.
