2013-14Top 16Round 11
March 20, 2014 CET: 18:45
Local time: 19:45 ZALGIRIS ARENA

Lokomotiv hangs on for vital win in Kaunas

In a game that came down to the final shot, Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar edged Zalgiris Kaunas 85-86 on Thursday at Zalgiris Arena. The visitors led by 13 early in the fourth quarter before Sarunas Jasikevicius helped the Lithuanian champs rally back to within 1. Despite a pair of clutch jumpers from Marcus Williams to keep Lokomotiv on top, Saras had a long three at the buzzer to win it. However his shot hit the front rim and allowed Lokomotiv to race home with its third road win of the Top 16 to improve to 5-6 in Group F. Zalgiris slipped to 1-10 with its fifth straight loss. Derrick Brown scored 15 points and grabbed 9 rebounds and Richard Hendrix added 15 and 8 for the winners. Williams finished with 11 points, as did Mantas Kalnietis, who was honored by Zalgiris before the game with a video tribute featuring highlights of his time with the club. Robertas Javtokas paced Zalgiris with 18 points and 9 boards and Martynas Pocius scored 16. Arturas Gudaitis, making his first career start, and Arturas Milaknis each had 14 points, while Jasikevicius had 8 points and a season-high 9 assists.

First quarter: Hosts start strong, visitors rally back

Zalgiris won the opening tip and struck first through Javtokas inside. Gudaitis took a pass from Javtokas for a score before Pocius knocked down a three from the corner to make it 7-0. Lokomotiv used an early timeout and brought in Williams off the bench, who got the visitors on the board with a pull-up jumper. Brown dunked in transition and assisted Simas Jasaitis on the break to close the gap to 9-6 midway through the quarter. Javtokas rejected Brown on the block, but the Lokomotiv forward spotted Jasaitis for a jumper. After Javtokas scored inside, Anton Ponkrashov drilled a three to tie the game at 11-11. Richard Hendrix gave the visitors their first lead, but Mindaugas Kupsas came in off the bench to match him. A series of free throws at both ends was interrupted only by a Kupsas basket. Milaknis and Williams traded threes to put Lokomotiv up 22-23.

Second quarter: Brown, Jasaitis pump up Lokomotiv’s cushion

Alexey Zhukanenko connected from behind the arc and Brown finished a break with a tomahawk jam as Lokomotiv limited the hosts to 1 point in nearly three minutes to build a 23-28 lead. After the TV timeout, Javtokas’s tip-in and free throw trimmed the deficit. Free throws from Brown and Krunoslav Simon’s drive kept the visitors rolling, but a second Milaknis triple closed the gap to 31-32. Kalnietis got going with an assist to Hendrix and a steal and layup. Javtokas drained a hook, but Brown’s three-point play in transition pumped the difference between the teams to 8. Pocius scored a reverse layup on the break only for Hendrix to answer in style. Justin Dentmon, fouled shooting a three, made 2 free throws for his first points of the game. Pocius and Jasaitis traded triples before a Jasaitis jumper gave Lokomotiv a 41-50 halftime cushion.

Third quarter: Javtokas, Milaknis keep Zalgiris in the picture

Dentmon started the second half with a triple, but a pair of Kalnietis layups – one in transition and the second a floater – gave Lokomotiv a double-digit lead. Javtokas put in his own miss only to see Brown sink a long jumper. Gudaitis and Kalnietis traded layups. A Milaknis three from the corner made it 53-60 midway through the quarter. Javtokas dunked but Ponkrashov scored in transition for the visitors. Milaknis scored 5 points in a row to get the crowd roaring at 60-62. Aleks Maric helped keep Lokomotiv in front with 3 points over two possessions as Lokomotiv finished the quarter up 61-65.

Fourth quarter: Saras carries Zalgiris back, but misses winner at buzzer

Maric scored inside and on the break as the visitors stretched their lead to 8. A Ponkrashov jumper restored a double digit difference. A technical foul on Dentmon allowed the visitors to cap a 0-9 run with a Williams-to-Hendrix alley-oop slam that made it 61-74. Javtokas ended the hosts’ scoring drought after nearly four minutes. Javtokas scored on the offensive glass and Saras threw an alley-oop to Pocius and converted a three-point play after a steal to keep his team in it at 71-76 midway through the quarter. Brown scored, Pocius answered with free throws. Baskets by Gudaitis and Pocius saw the arena erupt at 77-78 with just under three minutes to play. Hendrix, Kalnietis and Javtokas all split free throws. A follow-slam from Hendrix gave Lokomotiv a 4-point lead. Pocius and Williams each hit long jumper to make it 80-84 with a minute to go. Saras drilled a three; Williams countered with a jumper. Javtokas found a cutting Gudaitis for a slam to make it 85-86. After Williams missed a three, Pocius drove to the rim and missed a layup with 6.5 seconds left. Valeriy Likhodey missed twice from the line and the ball wound up in Jasikevicius’s hands, but his three-point attempt at the buzzer fell just short.

Derrick Brown - Lokomotiv Kuban - EB13
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Euroleague.net
Referees: JOVCIC, MILIVOJE; PEREZ, MIGUEL ANGEL; CORTES, CARLOS
Attendance: 9125 (Tentative)
By Quarter1234
Zalgiris Kaunas22192024
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar23271521
End of Quarter1234
Zalgiris Kaunas22416185
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar23506586
Zalgiris Kaunas
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
5 GUDAITIS, ARTURAS 23:41 14 5/5   4/6 2 4 6 1 1   2   3 3 22
7 POCIUS, MARTYNAS 29:45 16 4/11 2/5 2/2   5 5 3 1 2   2 4 3 10
10 LIPKEVICIUS, VYTENIS 27:29 3 1/2 0/2 1/2   3 3 1         2 3 4
12 KLIMAVICIUS, TADAS 4:47                   1     1   -2
15 JAVTOKAS, ROBERTAS 30:03 18 8/13   2/4 4 5 9 5   3 2   3 3 24
19 JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS 18:10 8 1/1 1/5 3/3   1 1 9 1 2     1 4 16
21 MILAKNIS, ARTURAS 18:26 14 1/2 4/7   1 3 4           1   13
22 KUPSAS, MINDAUGAS 6:03 5 2/2   1/2   1 1           1 2 6
23 DIMSA, TOMAS 18:48 2 0/2   2/2   1 1 1         3 1  
55 DENTMON, JUSTIN 22:48 5 0/5 1/2 2/3   1 1 5 1 3     4 4 2
Team           1 3 4               4
Totals 200:00 85 22/43 8/21 17/24 8 27 35 25 4 11 4 2 23 23 99
        51.2% 38.1% 70.8%
Head coach: STOMBERGAS, SAULIUS
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
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
5 BROWN, DERRICK 24:27 15 5/12   5/5 1 8 9 3 1     2 1 7 25
6 WILLIAMS, MARCUS 22:45 11 3/5 1/4 2/2   1 1 3   2     2 3 9
7 HENDRIX, RICHARD 27:01 15 7/7   1/2 2 6 8 2 2 2 1   2 3 26
9 KALNIETIS, MANTAS 20:11 11 5/7 0/2 1/2   1 1 3 1 1   1   1 10
11 LIKHODEI, VALERII 14:17 2 1/1 0/2 0/2 1 3 4       1   2 1 2
13 JASAITIS, SIMAS 22:51 9 3/5 1/3   1 1 2 4         3   8
20 ZUBKOV, ANDREY 5:14 1     1/2   1 1     1     1 1  
21 ZHUKANENKO, ALEXEY 3:18 3 0/1 1/1                 1 1    
22 MARIC, ALEKS 9:35 7 3/5   1/2 1 1 2   1       3 2 6
24 PONKRASHOV, ANTON 25:02 9 2/8 1/2 2/2   3 3 2 1 2     3 2 5
44 SIMON, KRUNOSLAV 25:19 3 1/4 0/2 1/1   3 3 4   1     5 2 1
Team           4 1 5               5
Totals 200:00 86 30/55 4/16 14/20 10 29 39 21 6 9 2 4 23 22 97
        54.5% 25% 70%
Head coach: PASHUTIN, EVGENY

Head Coaches

STOMBERGAS, SAULIUS
Zalgiris Kaunas
"We all wanted a victory today. Everyone was ready for it. We did all we could do. The first half was not successful for us. We let the opponents make some easy shots. Our defense was not good. After halftime we took control of the game, even though they still had opportunities to make some easy shots. Lokomotiv has two good big guys - Hendrix and Brown. They were a big problem for us under the basket. We played till the end of the game. I am happy that we had an opportunity to win. One of my main decisions was to let Gudaitis play in the starting lineup. He played as if he was an experienced player. Justin Dentmon was not keeping the rhythm of the game. He had to control the game, but he was not successfully doing it. We expect him to look better in the future games. He made some bad decisions like trying to dunk on the fast break or committing a technical foul. Our lineup was only 10 players today. We have a lot of games in the future. So I tried to distribute the playing time approximately equally among all the players. "
PASHUTIN, EVGENY
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar
"We expected a tough game here. Zalgiris is in a good shape. They lost against CSKA only by few points. They have good shooters like Dentmon, Pocius and Milaknis. Zalgiris players are aggressive and can create open space for their shots. Zalgiris‘s tactics with four small players on the court was a big problem for our defense. The condition of Robertas Javtokas is very good. He is dominating like in his young days. I would also like to say a lot of compliments to my team. We stayed concentrated at the end of the game. "

Players

JAVTOKAS, ROBERTAS
Zalgiris Kaunas
"We allowed them to make too many easy shots in the first half of the game. In the second half we were better on defense, but we still have the problem that we are unable to finish the game well and win it. We could have been better in rebounding and 86 points from Lokomotiv Kuban were too much."
KALNIETIS, MANTAS
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar
"As we expected it was a very tough game. Zalgiris plays well at home. We did not play smart at the end of the game. If we want to win important games we have to play better in the fourth quarter. My coach and I were amazed by the performance of Zalgiris‘s youngster Arturas Gudaitis. I have never seen him play before. It was a very good game for him."
BROWN, DERRICK
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar
"The team was trying to play hard. We needed this victory. It is important to get to the playoffs. Zalgiris is a great team; it was hard to play against them. They also have great fans, they help them a lot. Zalgiris plays for the fans, so it is really difficult for the opponents. Thankfully we coped with all that. But we are just happy about the win. Zalgiris has lots of good players, such as Dentmon and others. Also they have many young players. They were good; they show that they can play really hard. They kept the team in the game."