2019-20Regular SeasonRound 21
Zalgiris Kaunas 104
ALBA Berlin 80
January 24, 2020 CET: 19:00
Local time: 20:00 ZALGIRIO ARENA

Zalgiris produces offensive fireworks to destroy ALBA

Zalgiris Kaunas delivered a spectacular performance to cruise past ALBA Berlin with a crushing 104-80 victory at the Zalgirio Arena on Friday night. Zalgiris used a 10-0 run to establish a double-digit lead in the first quarter and steadily grew that margin to 29 points in the second. The outcome was never in doubt, with Zalgiris leading by 36 at one stage, and the lead stayed around that margin for the rest of the way. KC Rivers led the way with 17 points on 5-of-7 triples, while Edgaras Ulanovas scored 14, Jock Landale and Nigel Hayes both had 12, teenager Rokas Jokubaitis made a career-high 11 points and veteran Paulius Jankunas added 10. Landry Nnoko led ALBA’s resistance with 15 points and 7 rebounds, and Rokas Giedraitis and Peyton Siva scored 12. Both teams now have 7-21 records in a four-way tie for last place.

Giedraitis opened the scoring from long-range, and a put-back dunk from Nnoko kept the visitors ahead in a low-scoring start. But then Zalgiris took off: Hayes netted twice inside, including a three-point play, to make it 9-5, and an Ulanovas triple completed a 10-0 run. Johannes Thiemann ended the run by twice converting offensive rebounds, but Zach LeDay answered with two scores before a deep strike from Rivers and a driving layup from Lukas Lekavicius made it 23-9 after the first quarter. A three-pointer from Jokubaitis and further scores for LeDay, Rivers and Jokubaitis extended the margin to 36-14. Rivers hit his third triple and a circus shot from Thomas Walkup kept the home team motoring. Two close-range scores for Landale and another Jokubaitis triple made it 54-27 at half-time. Hayes started the second half with another deep strike, and 4 more points for Landale took the lead to 63-27 before triples from Siva and Luke Sikma propelled ALBA on a 0-8 run. Siva made another triple and a long two, but Rivers and Ulanovas maintained a comfortable margin from deep as the third quarter ended 84-52. Ulanovas stayed hot by sinking two more triples and a tip-in early in the fourth, keeping the advantage around 30 points. A flurry of points from Nnoko and two scores from Giedraitis brought ALBA closer, but Karolis Lukosiunas scored his first ever EuroLeague points and took Zalgiris into triple figures from long-range with a minute remaining.


Season highs for Zalgiris

Zalgiris set several season highs in this game, starting with its points tally of 104 which was the joint sixth-best in club history and the most since 2012. 18 offensive rebounds was also the best so far this season, as was 14 three-pointers and the long-range conversion rate of 51.9%.

Jokubaitis up and running

Rokas Jokubaitis had a night to remember with his first points of the season and the best performance of his young EuroLeague career. The 19 year-old guard nailed a trio of triples in the second quarter to help Zalgiris establish a margin which could never be threatened, and finished with a career-high 11 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 steal for a personal best PIR of 12.

Turnovers haunt ALBA again

ALBA has committed more turnovers than any other team in the competition and was dogged by that problem again during the crucial opening quarter. The visiting team turned the ball over 4 times in the first 5 minutes, helping Zalgiris mount a 10-0 run to surge clear for good.

Next round

Zalgiris heads on the road to take on LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne next Thursday evening, while ALBA welcomes Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul the same night.

Rokas Jokubaitis - Zalgiris Kaunas - EB19
Friday, January 24, 2020
Euroleague.net
Referees: PATERNICO, CARMELO; HORDOV, TOMISLAV ; NEDOVIC, MILAN
Attendance: 14869
By Quarter1234
Zalgiris Kaunas23313020
ALBA Berlin9182528
End of Quarter1234
Zalgiris Kaunas235484104
ALBA Berlin9275280
Zalgiris Kaunas
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 WALKUP, THOMAS 16:22 4 2/3 0/2   3 3 6 7   1     3   10
1 RIVERS, KC 18:26 17 1/1 5/7     1 1 1 1       1   17
4 LEKAVICIUS, LUKAS 15:48 4 2/6           4   1     2   1
10 HAYES-DAVIS, NIGEL 15:31 12 3/4 1/1 3/3 1 6 7 1 1       3 2 19
13 JANKUNAS, PAULIUS 17:17 10 2/3 1/2 3/4 1 4 5 1   1 1   2 3 14
16 LUKOSIUNAS, KAROLIS 7:05 3 0/1 1/2   2 2 4 2         2 1 6
21 MILAKNIS, ARTURAS 23:27 4 2/2 0/3     1 1 1 2       2   3
23 GEBEN, MARTINAS 7:05 5 2/2   1/2           1     2 1 2
31 JOKUBAITIS, ROKAS 21:53 11 1/4 3/4   2   2 4 1 4     2 4 12
32 LEDAY, ZACH 19:48 8 4/7   0/1 2 3 5 2     1   1 1 12
34 LANDALE, JOCK 19:40 12 5/10 0/2 2/2 3 4 7         1 4 2 9
92 ULANOVAS, EDGARAS 17:38 14 1/3 3/4 3/3 3 1 4 4 1 2     3 3 18
Team           1 1 2               2
Totals 200:00 104 25/46 14/27 12/15 18 26 44 27 6 10 2 1 27 17 125
        54.3% 51.9% 80%
Head coach: JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS
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
ALBA Berlin
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 MASON, MAKAI 7:50 7 1/2 1/1 2/3   1 1 1   1       2 8
3 SIVA, PEYTON 23:48 12 2/5 2/5 2/2 1 3 4 4 3 1     2 2 16
5 GIFFEY, NIELS 19:00 5 0/1 1/4 2/2       1   1     1 1 1
8 ERIKSSON, MARCUS 21:14 7 0/1 2/7 1/2   1 1 1 2 1     2 2 3
9 MATTISSECK, JONAS 11:30   0/2     1   1 1         1 1  
10 SCHNEIDER, TIM 6:24   0/2                   2 1 1 -4
15 HERMANNSSON, MARTIN 18:49   0/5 0/3     2 2 3         1 1 -3
31 GIEDRAITIS, ROKAS 22:22 12 4/5 1/2 1/1 1 2 3 2 1 1     2 3 16
32 THIEMANN, JOHANNES 13:12 8 4/5 0/2 0/2 4   4 1         2 1 7
34 CAVANAUGH, TYLER 12:45 5 1/4 0/1 3/4 1 2 3           2 2 3
35 NNOKO, LANDRY 23:31 15 3/4   9/10 3 4 7 1   3 1     8 27
43 SIKMA, LUKE 19:35 9 3/5 1/1     2 2 1 1 2     3 3 9
Team           7   7               7
Totals 200:00 80 18/41 8/26 20/26 18 17 35 16 7 10 1 2 17 27 90
        43.9% 30.8% 76.9%
Head coach: GARCIA RENESES, AITO

Head Coaches

JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS
Zalgiris Kaunas

"At moments we looked amazing. It helped that ALBA missed some easy shots in the first half but we shouldn’t take anything away from our guys. They prepared well and when you’re hitting shots like that basketball looks like a different game. Hopefully we can have more evenings like this in EuroLeague – in the toughest competition in the world it doesn’t happen often. I think we understand we’re much better, we’re playing good basketball and starting to hit some shots. But we also understand any moment we’re giving up a bit, losing our concentration and teams are making runs against us. Some lessons still to learn, but it’s better to learn your lessons when you’re winning than when you’re losing."

“Congratulations to our fans for another unbelievable atmosphere and congratulations to the players for one of our best games of the season. I’m very happy to beat a team that is hot, winning on the road and playing really good basketball. As a coach, and as players and fans, we really enjoyed this evening.”

GARCIA RENESES, AITO
ALBA Berlin
“They have good players not only on defense but also offense. They play with good energy, sometimes with fouls, but it’s important to play with this energy.”

Players

RIVERS, KC
Zalgiris Kaunas
“We built off our energy. When our energy is great we can do amazing things. When you have unbalanced energy, things go one way or the other. Everybody was on a high vibration today, and the first five minutes of the third were big for us to push the game out of reach. Everybody played well, limited our mistakes, did what we needed to do, we were attentive to detail for the most part and came out big winners today. It was very fun when you can win a game like that and get the young guys in who haven’t played a lot. It’s amazing for us, and commends us for how well we played but hopefully we’ll have more games like this. The EuroLeague is tough from top to bottom so we’ve got to build off this and prepare for the next tough one.”
HAYES-DAVIS, NIGEL
Zalgiris Kaunas
“We made shots, that’s what we’ve been saying - earlier in the season we were playing well but we couldn’t make our shots. The first game we played against ALBA, we were 2 of 23 from the three-point line but only lost by 6 or 7. So it’s a tale of two cities, tale of two games. We were able to make shots and kept the same defensive tenacity and pressure, and were able to win by a bunch. There’s a lot of fun, one thing Saras mentioned after last game is making we do the right things and play the right way, then we’re able to win and have fun. Obviously you’ve got to win to have fun because you don’t to put the cart before the horse. It’s good when everyone’s out there playing hard, the ball’s going in and the crowd is involved. We definitely want to give them wins and good games because they’re still here supporting us even though we had a horrible streak of losing, and they’re still here showing why they’re the best fans in the EuroLeague.”