2016-17Regular SeasonRound 29
Zalgiris Kaunas 84
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan 88
March 31, 2017 CET: 19:00
Local time: 20:00 ZALGIRIO ARENA

Milan ends 13-game road losing streak in Kaunas

EA7 Emporio Armani Milan edged Zalgiris Kaunas 84-88 on Friday to snap its seven-game losing run and end a streak of 13 consecutive road losses. Milan improved to 8-21, while Zalgiris dropped to 13-16 with one game to go in the regular season. Zalgiris built an 11-point lead in the first quarter, but the visitors rallied in the second quarter. Neither team had an advantage bigger than 7 points the rest of the way, but Milan made plays – and enough free throws – down the stretch to get the victory. Jamel McLean and Andrea Cinciarini scored 17 points apiece in victory. Ricky Hickman netted 16 on 4-of-5 three-point shooting and Awudu Abass had 13 points for Milan. The hosts had five scorers in double-digits led by Kevin Pangos with 16. Lukas Lekavicius tallied 15 points and 7 assists, Paulius Jankunas collected 12 points and 8 rebounds, Brock Motum scored 11 and Arturas Milaknis 10 in defeat.

Zalgiris had a great start behind the guard duo of Pangos and Leo Westermann. Pangos scored 8 points, including two triples, and Westermann dished assists to Robertas Javtokas and Jankunas for easy buckets, as the hosts opened an 18-9 lead. A triple by Motum extended the margin to 24-13, but after Zalgiris led 27-18 after 10 minutes, three-pointers from Davide Pascolo and Abass, with the help of Cinciarini, who took the reigns of Milan's offense, the visitors made a charge. Miroslav Raduljica fought his way inside and Pascolo hit his second shot from downtown to give Milan its first lead, 34-35. Westermann and Lekavicius made sure Zalgiris went into halftime up 41-39, and after the break Jankunas, Javtokas, Pangos and Arturas Milaknis made it 50-43. But Hickman got hot, hitting a pair of three-pointers to help Milan regain the lead, 56-58. Hickman’s third triple at the end of the quarter tied it at 63-63, and his fourth early in the fourth gave the visitor a 65-68 lead. The teams continued trading leads before Cinciarini hit a three-pointer with 55 seconds left to give Milan a 77-81 edge. The hosts repeatedly sent Milan to the free throw line in the remaining time, but Milan made enough foul shots to hold on to victory.

Andrea Cinciarini 2- EA7 Emporio Armani Milan - EB16
Friday, March 31, 2017
Euroleague.net
Referees: JIMENEZ, BENJAMIN; ZAMOJSKI, JAKUB; MAJKIC, MARIO
Attendance: 15231
By Quarter1234
Zalgiris Kaunas27142221
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan18212425
End of Quarter1234
Zalgiris Kaunas27416384
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan18396388
Zalgiris Kaunas
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
3 PANGOS, KEVIN 23:22 16 1/1 4/5 2/3       3 1 1     4 2 15
4 LEKAVICIUS, LUKAS 17:04 15 1/3 3/8 4/6       7 1 3     3 5 13
6 VALINSKAS, PAULIUS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
9 WESTERMANN, LEO 16:36 2 1/2 0/2     3 3 7 1 2     5 2 5
10 SEIBUTIS, RENALDAS 11:15 2   0/1 2/2   2 2 1   1       1 4
12 MOTUM, BROCK 19:06 11 3/5 1/2 2/3 1 1 2 1         3 3 10
13 JANKUNAS, PAULIUS 28:51 12 5/6 0/1 2/4 1 7 8 3   1     4 6 20
15 JAVTOKAS, ROBERTAS 14:50 8 4/6       2 2 1           2 11
21 MILAKNIS, ARTURAS 29:18 10 2/2 2/6     2 2 4 1 1   1 2   9
23 LIMA, AUGUSTO 17:13 4 2/4       1 1       1   2 1 3
44 KAVALIAUSKAS, ANTANAS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
92 ULANOVAS, EDGARAS 22:25 4 2/3 0/1   2   2 1   1     2 1 3
Team           3 3 6               6
Totals 200:00 84 21/32 10/26 12/18 7 21 28 28 4 10 1 1 25 23 99
        65.6% 38.5% 66.7%
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
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 MCLEAN, JAMEL 25:33 17 5/6 0/1 7/8 2 2 4 1   1     5 6 19
7 HICKMAN, RICKY 17:03 16 1/4 4/5 2/2   1 1 3   1   1 5 3 12
9 KALNIETIS, MANTAS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
11 RADULJICA, MIROSLAV 14:14 6 3/6   0/1   2 2   2 2     2 1 3
13 MACVAN, MILAN 30:02 7 3/7 0/2 1/1 2 3 5 5 1 1     2 3 12
14 PASCOLO, DAVIDE 26:55 12 3/3 2/2   1 2 3 4 2       2 1 20
16 GIARDINI, SAMUELE DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
20 CINCIARINI, ANDREA 33:47 17 3/6 1/7 8/12 1 3 4 4 2 1     4 6 15
21 SANDERS, RAKIM 13:56   0/2 0/2     1 1 1         2   -4
23 ABASS, AWUDU 38:30 13 2/3 1/2 6/6 2 3 5 2   1 1   1 5 22
Team           2 3 5               5
Totals 200:00 88 20/37 8/21 24/30 10 20 30 20 7 7 1 1 23 25 104
        54.1% 38.1% 80%
Head coach: REPESA, JASMIN

Head Coaches

JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS
Zalgiris Kaunas
“First of all, I want to thank the fans. More than 15,000 came to Zalgirio Arena today, which is a fantastic thing. Big thanks to our fans! Talking to the players before the game I said if you want to feel joy in this game you have to defend. When you allow your opponents to score 88 points, it tells all about your defense. With such mental mistakes and defense we didn’t deserve to win tonight. It is always hard to beat the same team twice in the same season.”
REPESA, JASMIN
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan
“It is a pleasure to be in Kaunas, a place where basketball is more than sport, where basketball is life. I am very happy we won. Everyone who follows basketball knows we are in a terrible situation, we have a short roster. Tonight we had seven players available, and Rakim Sanders helped us, although in a regular situation he would not play. But we believed, played a smart game. We had two goals we talked about before the game, to limit turnovers because Zalgiris is an aggressive team, and to control defensive rebounds, where they are fourth in the league. We controlled those well, and these are the reasons why we won. We did not have a good EuroLeague season, we played mostly bad in the EuroLeague, we had many problems, so for us every win, like this one tonight, is important.”