Zalgiris Kaunas stops Zvezda for its first road win

Zalgiris Kaunas claimed its first road win in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague in nearly a year by stopping Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade 79-88 on Friday at Aleksandar Nikolic Hall. Antanas Kavaliauskas scored 8 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter and Arturas Milaknis knocked down 5 of 6 three-pointers en route to a career-best 19 points as Zalgiris won back-to-back games for the first time this season. The Lithuanian champs improved to 4-6 by snapping an 11-game losing streak on the road since beating FC Barcelona last December. Edgaras Ulanovas netted 4 free throws down the stretch among his 14 points to help seal it late and Leo Wesstermann collected 7 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists for the winners, who led by 13 early but trailed by 2 at halftime. Zalgiris outrebounded Zvezda 24-39, blocked 5 shots to the hosts’ 1 and outshot the Serbian champs from every distance. Milko Bjelica pced Zvezda with 19 points, Marko Simonovic and Nemanja Dangubic scored 16 each and Nate Wolters netted 15 in defeat as Zvezda lost its second straight game and fell to 4-6.

Milaknis buried 3 early threes and Augusto Lima also started strong to help the visitors to a 6-15 advantage. The hosts were held for nearly five minutes without a basket before Bjelica drained a triple. However, Milaknis buried another three-pointer and Brock Motum came off the bench to push the difference to double figures. A key Simonovic three and a Wolters jumper at the buzzer made it 16-24 after 10 minutes. Wolters continued to spark the hosts with an offensive rebound and three-point play to make it 23-26. Zalgiris weathered the storm – or so it seemed – and Ulanovas’s tip-in gave the visitors a 27-35 cushion midway through the quarter, but the hosts scored the next 10 points. Zvezda tied it on Charles Jenkins’s basket-plus-foul and took the lead on Bjelica’s layup. After a series of lead changes, Stefan Jovic’s layup made it 44-42 at the break. The crowd roared as Dangubic’s three made it 56-51 midway through the third quarter. However Simonovic fouled out on a technical foul, which Zalgiris used to come back and tie it and then take the lead, 61-63, on a Motum layup. Wolters revived the hosts and the game headed into the fourth quarter tied 66-66. The pace slowed down with many points starting to come from the line; Kavaliauskas pushed Zalgiris ahead 71-74 from the line and remained active inside as the margin increased to 7 with four minutes left. Dangubic cut the difference to 79-84 with two and a half minutes to go, but then fouled out. Ulanovas added 4 key free throws to push the difference to 9 and all but wrap up the win.