Valencia maintained their Pesic-era good form and started off Euroleague Top16 phase with an emphatic win over Zalgiris.
Zalgiris started the game with an unorthodox starting lineup, including Kuzminskas, but surprisingly the Lithuanian side started the game in style, leading 4-7. Same story later in the first quarter when Delininkaitis gave Zalgiris a four points lead, 12-16. De Colo and Lischuk stepped up in the last moments of the opening quarter but Collins kept Zalgiris in front, 20-21.
In the second quarter Martinez scored his first field goal for 24-24. Slowly, but steadily Valencia took control of game and thanks to Savanovic and Claver established a small lead, 35-39. Then Javtokas took voer and with a couple of hooks sent the teams to the locker rooms with Valencia leading by eight, 39-31.
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Zalgiris tried to react in the beginning of second half but Valencia kept their ground. The Lithuanians cut the difference down to four, 42-46, but it didn’t last as Claver answered behind the arc. With De Colo dictating the pace Valencia increased their lead to almost double digit level, 54-45. Zalgiris didn’t give up and with Brown scoring an amazing, first in Euroleague season, long-range threepointer allowed Zalgiris to hope, 54-50.
The last quarter belonged to Valencia who were led by Cook and Savanovic. The Spanish side established a double digits difference for the first time in the game, 62-52. From that point on the difference kept growing, despite Zouros shuffling his lineup. Savanovic sealed a 11-0 run for the greatest difference of the game, 68-52. The only thing Zalgiris managed to do was cut the difference down to fourteen, 73-59.
