Zalgiris coach Sarunas Jasikevicius praised role player Arturas Milaknis for his clutch basket that led to the Kaunas side beating EuroLeague champions Fenerbahce.
Milaknis drained a corner three-pointer with 5.0 seconds left to seal the win for Zalgiris, who were leading by a point but under intense pressure before the 31-year-old hit the big shot.
“Milaknis was waiting for his moment,” Jasikevicius said.
“He really had a very rough first half of the game, but let’s hope this is his experience, to come back from a bad first half against a championship team can make a player who is very strong in his character.”
Milaknis hit the three-pointer to hand Zalgiris the win, but they were also guided by a team-high 22 points from Kevin Pangos, who also hit four three’s of his own.
“The ball was going in today,” Pangos said.
“I’m just happy we got the win today on the road, it’s huge for us. Toughness. We just scrapped it out. It wasn’t pretty at all. Turnovers. We made a lot of mistakes. A win is a win. That’s all that matter at the end of the day.”
