Micic and dominant D lift Zalgiris past Valencia

Zalgiris Kaunas rode a dominant start to the second half to earn a 63-71 victory over Valencia Basket, bolstering its position in the top half of the standings and condemning the Spanish team to a 10th consecutive defeat. Coach Sarunas Jasikevicius’s men claimed their fifth road win of the season in improving to 9-5 and dropping slumping to 3-11. Valencia led by 2 points at half-time but it was all Zalgiris after the break. Vasilije Micic paced the victors with 16 points, while Paulius Jankunas combined 11 points with 11 rebounds. Aaron White and Arturas Milaknis each scored 11 and Brandon Davies added 10. Valencia’s challenge was led by a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds from Bojan Dubljevic and Erick Green’s 14 points.

Davies scored the game’s first two baskets from close range, and Edgaras Ulanovas gave Zalgiris a 0-6 start. Aaron Doornekamp’s jumper got Valencia on the board, but then Davies scored again and Valencia had just 2 points midway through the opening quarter. Jankunas protected the lead with 6 points in a hurry, but Valencia picked up its offensive production through inside shooting, including two baskets for Alberto Abalde, and it was 16-19 at the start of the second. Triples from Will Thomas and Green gave Valencia its first lead, but a pair of two-pointers from Micic and a fastbreak slam from White made it 26-27. Rafa Martinez and Doornekamp connected from long-range to give Valencia its biggest lead yet, but a Micic-to-White alley-oop and a triple from Milaknis – Zalgiris’s first of the game – pulled it back to 36-34 at halftime.

Zalgiris started the second half with a triple from Micic and a dunk from Davies. A Micic layup made it 39-45 as Valencia was held nearly nine minutes without a field goal, during which it missed 11 consecutive shots. A triple from Kevin Pangos, who had been out of the game on 3 fouls, took the lead to 42-48, and Ulanovas added a three-point play before Dubljevic finally scored Valencia’s first field goal of the quarter with 1:20 remaining. White’s triple made it a double-digit game, but Dubljevic scored again to finish the third at 46-54. A three from Milaknis and another White alley-oop slam was countered by Dubljevic from close range and Martinez from deep, but White’s free throws kept the lead in double figures. Valencia couldn’t find a spark as Zalgiris scored often enough to protect its advantage. Green’s triple gave Valencia hope at 59-65 with three minutes remaining and Sam Van Rossom made it a 4-point game after Zalgiris missed chances to seal the outcome. But the visitors came out of a timeout to nail back-to-back threes by Micic and Milaknis that iced the win.