2018-19PlayoffsGame 2
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul 80
Zalgiris Kaunas 82
April 18, 2019 CET: 19:45
Local time: 20:45 ULKER SPORTS AND EVENT HALL

Zalgiris holds off Fenerbahce in shocker

Zalgiris Kaunas bounced back in the best way possible, pulling out a thrilling 80-82 road win over Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul in Game 2 of their best-of-five playoff series. Zalgiris ended Fenerbahce's perfect home record this season and an 18-game home-court winning streak, but more importantly, tied the score at 1-1 in the series that now moves for Games 3 and 4 to Kaunas. Zalgiris led for the majority of the night and had a 17-point margin on four occasions late in the third quarter before Fenerbahce rallied and tied it at 80-80 in the final minute. But Edgaras Ulanovas scored what turned out to be a game-winning basket, fittingly, as he finished with a game-high 20 points and pulled down 7 rebounds. Nate Wolters had 12 of his 14 points in the first half and Brandon Davies scored 13 points in the victory. Luigi Datome paced the hosts with 17 points and 9 rebounds, Kostas Sloukas had 15 points and 6 assists, Jan Vesely scored 12 and Marko Guduric 11 in defeat.

Fenerbahce started hot, with Guduric connecting twice from downtown Nicolo and Melli also hitting a three-pointer to open a 13-6 lead. Fenerbahce scored on five of its first six possessions, but the visitors got it going themselves. Deon Thompson had a dunk and a jumper and Leo Westermann and Wolters hit from downtown in between to make it 15-18. Fenerbahce took a 21-20 lead into the second quarter after a three from Erick Green. Luigi Datome added one from long distance early in the second. But Ulanovas was active on the offensive glass and scored 6 points to make it 26-30 before a triple apiece from Arturas Milaknis and Wolters helped create a 30-40 margin. Zalgiris hit more triples through Westermann and Aaron White, but Vesely scored twice inside and Sloukas hit from the outside to make it 39-46 at halftime.

Marius Grigonis scored 7 points in the opening 3 minutes of the second half to establish a 42-55 margin before Walkup had a jumper and a coast-to-coast layup for a 46-63 lead with 4:30 left in the third. Datome gave Fenerbahce a spark, but Zalgiris was perfect converting from close range, with Davies scoring twice to keep the margin at 17 points. The visitors took a 58-73 cushion into the final quarter, but did not score a single point for almost 3 minutes, while Sloukas went coast-to-coast to cut it to 62-73. Fenerbahce kept its level of defense, not allowing any field goals, all while Datome hit a baseline jumper and Guduric added a corner triple to cut within 71-77. Ulanovas had a steal and a dunk to score first Zalgiris's field goal of the quarter with 3:18 left, but the hosts continued their charge and a tough layup by Vesely got Fenerbahce to 75-79 with 2:10 left. Sloukas and Vesely connected on an alley-oop dunk, and Datome nailed a jumper with 38.9 seconds to tie it at 80-80. After a timeout, however, Ulanovas beat the shot clock with a layup in traffic, before Guduric stepped out of bounds while trying to create a shot with 4.3 seconds to go. Datome had one last chance to win it for Fenerbahce, but his long off-balanced three only hit the front rim as Zalgiris celebrated a big upset.

Pivotal performer

Edgaras Ulanovas did just about everything in this victory, pulling Zalgiris throughout the night. He starred by making 9-of-10 field goals for the night and his 20 points were just 2 shy of his career-high. Ulanovas scored the only 2 fourth-quarter field goals for the Lithuanian champs, including the game-winner.

Stellar stat

Zalgiris was perfect on 10 tries from two-point range in the third quarter, which it won 19-27.

Did you notice?

Fenerbahce lost its first home game of the season and its first playoff game at home under Coach Zeljko Obradovic after eight consecutive playoff wins dating back to 2015.

Hidden stat

In Game 1, Zalgiris was held to 43 points, the club's all-time EuroLeague low and second-fewest in EuroLeague playoff history. In this game, Zalgiris matched that total already with 2:37 left in the second quarter on a three-pointer by Leo Westermann and surpassed it on the next possession with a triple from Aaron White.

Next up

The series now moves to Kaunas for Game 3 on Tuesday and Game 4 on Thursday. Zalgiris has won the only two previous home EuroLeague Playoffs games this century, while Fenerbahce is 5-1 on the road in the playoffs under Coach Zeljko Obradovic.

Edgaras Ulanovas celebrates - Zalgiris Kaunas - EB18
Thursday, April 18, 2019
Euroleague.net
Referees: LAMONICA, LUIGI; PASTUSIAK, PIOTR; NEDOVIC, MILAN
Attendance: 12635
By Quarter1234
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul21181922
Zalgiris Kaunas2026279
End of Quarter1234
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul21395880
Zalgiris Kaunas20467382
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 GREEN, ERICK 6:56 3   1/1         1           1 5
4 MELLI, NICOLO 24:08 9 2/5 1/2 2/2 1 1 2 1 2         4 14
10 MAHMUTOGLU, MELIH 6:45 2 1/1               1     2   -1
12 KALINIC, NIKOLA 28:06 4 0/4 0/1 4/6 1 2 3 2 2 3   1 3 5 2
13 BIBEROVIC, TARIK DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
16 SLOUKAS, KOSTAS 31:42 15 4/8 1/2 4/4   3 3 6   1     3 6 21
23 GUDURIC, MARKO 27:05 11 1/2 3/5     1 1 1   1     2 1 8
24 VESELY, JAN 16:10 12 5/6   2/3       2 1 3     4 4 10
32 GULER, SINAN 8:16 2 1/1       1 1 1   2 1   2   1
35 MUHAMMED, ALI 17:58 5 1/2 1/3   1   1 1   1     1 2 4
44 DUVERIOGLU, AHMET 6:33           1 1           1    
70 DATOME, LUIGI 26:21 17 3/5 2/4 5/5 2 7 9           2 2 22
Team                                
Totals 200:00 80 18/34 9/18 17/20 5 16 21 15 5 12 1 1 20 25 86
        52.9% 50% 85%
Head coach: OBRADOVIC, ZELJKO
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Zalgiris Kaunas
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 DAVIES, BRANDON 18:06 13 5/9   3/4   1 1 1 1 3     3 2 7
2 THOMPSON, DEON 21:54 8 3/4   2/2 1 2 3 2         3 1 10
3 WOLTERS, NATE 15:57 14 3/5 2/2 2/2 1 1 2 2         3 1 14
7 WALKUP, THOMAS 19:24 6 2/3 0/1 2/4   3 3 3 1 4   1 4 3 3
9 WESTERMANN, LEO 24:16 6   2/7 0/2 1 3 4 3 1 3     2 1 3
13 JANKUNAS, PAULIUS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
21 MILAKNIS, ARTURAS 19:51 3   1/2     1 1   1       1 2 5
30 WHITE, AARON 24:03 3 0/1 1/2     4 4           4   1
31 JOKUBAITIS, ROKAS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
40 GRIGONIS, MARIUS 23:24 9 2/2 0/2 5/5   2 2 3   1     3 6 14
44 KAVALIAUSKAS, ANTANAS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
92 ULANOVAS, EDGARAS 33:05 20 9/10 0/1 2/2 4 3 7 2 1 2 1   2 4 29
Team                     1         -1
Totals 200:00 82 24/34 6/17 16/21 7 20 27 16 5 14 1 1 25 20 85
        70.6% 35.3% 76.2%
Head coach: JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS

Head Coaches

OBRADOVIC, ZELJKO
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
"First, I want to congratulate Zalgiris for their victory tonight. They played very good basketball. Something we talked about after Game 1 was that is is normal after the first game that they would have a reaction. Considering we came back to the game to have a chance to win, they deserved to win the game. We were not at the level necessary to win a EuroLeague playoff game. Our defense was different than two nights ago and when this happens it is always the coach's responsibility. It is 1-1, the series goes to Kaunas and we have to prepare ourselves and understand what we need to do better in the upcoming games. Thanks to the crowd that came out tonight. When we talk about defense, if you leave one team to make 70% of two-point shots, you can’t say you played defense. But even in moments when we played good defense, we made bad decisions offensively, rushed, wanted to change the game in a few seconds. That is always the wrong way."
JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS
Zalgiris Kaunas
"It is amazing. Wins and losses are important, but at the end, it is not the most important thing. It is the reaction of the players, the fighting spirit they showed after the bad performance we had two days ago. I am happy for them. We knew we are coming in playing great basketball, but two days ago we were not able to do it. We have to be extremely happy for our fans who now get to see the best team in Europe for two games and the best coach in Europe for two games. This is very exciting for people in Kaunas."

Players

ULANOVAS, EDGARAS
Zalgiris Kaunas
"They were unbeaten at home, but the most important things is we won today. It was a very difficult game. Fenerbahce has a very good quality, no matter what lead we had they came back with amazing fans. We are expecting a very difficult [rest] of the series. If you want to have second chances in basketball, this a bonus position. Rebounding is one of the most important things in basketball. Today we did a great job, but we also had a couple of mistakes on the other end and we have to prepare for the next game."
DAVIES, BRANDON
Zalgiris Kaunas
"It is a hard-fought win. I think we showed who we were, who we’ve been the past couple of games, minus the one we had the other day. But this is the way to go, this is the way to play. Fenerbahce is never out of the fight. It is no secret how good they are and how seasoned they are. The key is to fight the whole game long, take away their easy baskets and play hard as a team."
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