Neptunas Klaipeda captures road win at Nizhny Novgorod

Neptunas Klaipeda used a huge fourth-quarter comeback to edging Nizhny Novgorod on the road 78-82 on Wednesday in Group F. The two teams now have identical 2-2 records and share second place in the group. Nizhny built a 65-49 lead early in the fourth quarter before 16 unanswered points by Neptunas tied the game at 65-65. In a thrilling finish, Mindaugas Girdzinas’s free throw made it 77-78 before Arnas Butkevicius and Arvydas Siksnius were perfect from the line to seal the Neptunas victory. Butkevicius and Daniel Ewing led the winners with 12 points each and Martynas Mazeika bagged 10. Rasid Mahalbasic of Nizhny led all scorers with 24 points on 10-of-11 shooting. Victor Rudd chipped in 18 points and Evgeny Baburin posted 11 in defeat.

The visitors opened the game by scoring 4 consecutive points, answered by 9 - 6 of them by Mahalbasic - to lead 9-4 after three and a half minutes. Ivan Viktorov and Vladimir Ivlev scored from mid range to fuel Nizhny to 17-10. Gilvydas Biruta from downtown fixed the score at 17-13 at the end of the first quarter. Harvey Grant hit a jumper to make it 17-15 for Neptunas. Baburin was hot from long distance then Mahlbasic scored again for the first double digit margin in the game, 29-18. The guests reacted with Ewing and Simas Galdikas scoring easy points in the open court, 29-22 with four minutes left to halftime. Semen Antonov and Mahalbasic pushed Nizhny to 35-25. An 8-3 run for the guests highlighted by 2 three-pointers by Ewing made it 38-33 at halftime for Nizhny Novgorod.

Mahlbasic shined for his side early in the third quarter. Butkevicius answered form the three-point line, but it was not until late in the quarter that Rudd scored 7 points in a row to extend the difference to a comfortable 58-43. Ewing scored from mid range to keep the visitors in the hunt. Ivan Strebkov hit a long three, then Antonov and Galdikas fixed the score at 63-49 through three quarters. Mahalbasic opened the last 10 minutes scoring again to go ahead 65-49, but an outstanding 0-16 Neptunas run led by 6 points drilled by Travis Bader and 4 by Butkevicius tied the game at 65 with less than six minutes left. The lead team changed hands twice more and the score was tied three times before Mindaugas Girdzinas scored one of his free throws to lead 77-78 with 17, then Butkevicius and Siksnius were perfect from the line to seal the visitors’ win.