Virtus uses big third quarter to roll past Lietkabelis

Virtus Segafredo Bologna remained perfect in the 7DAYS EuroCup as it rolled to an 82-73 victory at home over Lietkabelis Panevezys in a makeup of their postponed Round 6 encounter. Kyle Weems led the way with 14 points for Virtus, which took control of the game with an 18-3 run starting the second half. Amedeo Tessitori and Giampaolo Ricci both picked up 11 points to help Virtus move to 7-0 in Group C. Lietkabelis dropped to 1-6 despite Kyle Vinales coming off the bench to score a career high 27 points to go with 6 assists. Vytenis Lipkevicius added 11 points and 12 rebounds in the loss.

Tessitori opened the scoring for Virtus with Paulius Poska hitting from deep for Lietkabelis. Weems knocked down a three-pointer to help keep the hosts ahead despite 2 triples from Marius Valinskas at 11-9. Tessitori added an and-one and Weems scored twice at the rim for an 18-11 gap, which was 21-17 after 10 minutes. Gabrielius Maldunas started the second-quarter scoring while Virtus waited more than 2 minutes for Ricci’s three-pointer. The hosts struggled to find an offensive rhythm until midway through the quarter as Amar Alibegovic hit from long range and Josh Adams converted a four-point play in a 13-3 surge to move ahead 37-24. Lietkabelis finished with the final 10 points thanks to three-pointers from Vinales and Paulius Valinskas to make it 37-34 at the break.

Virtus came out of the locker room in strong fashion with the first 8 points to move ahead 45-34. Lipkevicius finally scored after 3 minutes for the guests but Weems and Ricci responded with triples of their own as the advantage grew to 55-37. Lietkabelis mounted a 3-9 spurt with a Margiris Normantas and-one and a Paulius Valinskas three-pointer to pull within 58-46. But Virtus scored the final 7 points of the quarter and led 65-46 after 30 minutes. The advantage grew to 68-46 as Lietkabelis needed more than 2 minutes to finally get on the scoreboard. Vinales picked up 6 points and Lipkevicius and Vinales drained three-pointers and the margin was only 74-61 with 5 minutes left. The deficit was down to 10 points, 74-64, on another Vinales triple. Alibegovic punched back with his own three-pointer only to see Vinales drain another triple to make it 79-71 with 40 seconds left. But there would be no miracle comeback.

Virtus used bench

All 12 Virtus players got into the game with only Josh Adams playing more than 23 minutes and 10 of the Virtus players scored.

Another strong showing from Tessitori

Amedeo Tessitori collected 11 points with 2 rebounds and 4 assists for an index rating of 18. The center set a EuroCup career high with 15 points and he has now scored at least 10 points in his last three games.

Telling numbers

Virtus shot 57.1% on two-pointers and 43.5% from deep while Lietkabelis converted on 46.1% from two-point range. The guests also hit just 66.7% from the foul line.

Next games

After the break, Virtus will next host AS Monaco on December 9 in a Round 9 matchup. Lietkabelis faces another road game when it returns to the EuroCup, travelling to Belgium to play Telenet Giants Antwerp on December 9.