The 19th time is the charm for Zalgiris.
After losing their previous 18 encounters against EuroLeague champions and current league leaders CSKA Moscow, Zalgiris finally got the better of the Russian powerhouse, beating them 79-74 in front of a jubilant home-town crowd at the Zalgirio Arena on Tuesday.
The Lithuanian champions came so close to upsetting Real Madrid last week, but they weren’t to be denied this time. Trailing by five points after three quarters, Zalgiris raced out of the blocks in the final period and kept their heads up despite having head coach Sarunas Jasikevicius ejected for two technical fouls.
The emotion might have got the better of the play caller, but you can’t blame him. He wanted his team to win, and they finally did; snapping a 18-game losing streak that spanned nearly 17 years.
“I feel great,” said Zalgiris’ Kevin Pangos, who paced the winners with 21 points.
“This is what we want to do as a team – win every game we can. We came out, played really well this game and finished very strong. It was good. They are a talented team, really experienced, but I think we just used our effort at the end to get the victory.”
Zalgiris improves to 7-12, creating a little room between them and the bottom two. CSKA’s gap at the top has shrunk as they have suffered their fifth loss this season. Real Madrid could top the standings if they win at Brose Bamberg tomorrow.
Crvena Zvezda also made a statement by dismantling Baskonia 87-69 in Vitoria to extend their winning run to six games, a club record.
But they did so against a team usually dominant at home. Baskonia have only tasted defeat twice in two season on their floor but they were outplayed from the opening tip as Red Star opened up a 25-15 lead after one and never looked back.
“It was a great win for us,” said Marko Simonovic, who led Red Star with 23 points.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game – they are a great team with great character. They played very well the whole season and had a very bad game last week. We knew they were going to show character, but we came into the game like we always do and it was perfect.
Both teams now own 11-8 records.
In a battle of EuroLeague powerhouses that lived up to the expectations, Panathinaikos held off Barcelona 71-65 in the Greek capital.
Panathinaikos improved to 11-8, while Barcelona lost its seventh consecutive road game and dropped to 8-11 for the season.
The Greens took the lead for good in the second quarter, forcing their Catalan counterparts into 21 turnovers. The Greek side rarely broke double-digits but were comfortable.
Veteran Ioannis Bourousis stepped up with a double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Greens.
Fenerbahce avenged their loss earlier in the season to Unics Kazan by defeating the Russian side 86-81 on the road.
Luigi Datome paved the way with 18 points for Fenerbahce as the Turkish side solidified their Playoff push with their fifth win away from the Ulker Sports Arena.
“The key was to stay focused with our game plan,” Datome said. “We knew their key offensively, and my teammates had a great effort the whole game.”
Art Parakhouski stood tall with 21 points for Unics, with Keith Langford, the EuroLeague’s leading scorer held to just 11 points.
Galatasaray ended a five-game losing stint against Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv in convincing fashion with an emphatic 102-63 in Istanbul.
The result leaves both teams with 6-13 records, but Galatasaray also won the tiebreak between them as Maccabi won their previous game in Tel Aviv by just six points.
Galatasaray broke its own club EuroLeague records in its scoring total for a non-overtime game, in the winning margin of 39 points and in dishing 29 assists.
Jon Diebler went 6/7 from three-point land to lead the winners with 21 points.
