2005-06Regular SeasonRound 10
January 12, 2006 CET: 20:45
Local time: 20:45 S.DARIUS AND S.GIRENAS SPORT CENTER
Zalgiris virtually put one foot in the Top 16 and held onto its piece of first place in Group A by turning back visiting AEK 87-70 at home in Kaunas, Lithuania on Thursday. Zalgiris led solidly throughout the game but had to be wary of a comebck as AEK poured in 51 points in the second half. Zalgiris improved to 7-3 and will continue to share first place in Group A with Tau Ceramica. AEK fell to 3-7 and a sixth-place tie with Strasbourg. Reggie Freeman took over early and finished with 20 points to lead Zalgiris. Paulius Jankunas was next with 18, while Darjus Lavrinovic scored all his 14 after halftime. Tanoka Beard posted a double-double of 12 points and 13 rebounds for the winners. AEK got 22 points from Lionel Chalmers, 16 from Michalis Pelekanos and 11 from Slaven Rimac, but couldn't overcome low-percentage shooting from the floor all night.

Freeman started the scoring with a three-point shot for Zalgiris, which Rimac answered with a jumper on the next possesion. AEK flirted with shots from the arc but found nothing, while Simonas Serapinas drove for a dunk and stepped outside for a triple from right wing to push the hosts ahead 9-4. Michalis Pelekanos made his first basket and rejected a shot by Freeman, but the Zalgiris ace took revenge soon with a basket-plus-free throw to boost Zalgiris's lead to 12-6. Coppenrath, the hero of AEK's win over Zalgiris in Athens, scored his first points now, but Zalgiris responded quickly as Ed Cota fed Tanoka Beard for an easy basket before Rimac cut the difference to 15-10 with free throws to end the first quarter.

More than 2 minutes of the second quarter went by without any points, until Paulius Jankunas busted out for back-to-back three-point plays and Jonas Maciulis capped an 8-0 run for Zalgiris with a dunk. AEK couldn't get any rhythm until Coppenrath scored at the line after 4 minutes in the second quarter. Zalgiris continued hot on the offensive end as Maciulis converted an inbound assist by Cota. Pelekanos stepped up with a jumper and bomb from behind the arc for AEK, while Coppenrath joined him with layup that cut the difference single digits, 28-19. Zalgiris turned again to Freeman as the first scoring option from the outside, and he responded with another triple. AEK missed some open shots and Cota capitalized by tapping in the half's last basket to keep Zalgiris in front, 33-19.

A difficult jumper by Beard opened the second half, and despite a triple in response by Rimac, Darjus Lavrinovic added back-to-back baskets to put Zalgiris ahead even more, 42-26. Nonetheless, the AEK offense seemed fresh and aggresive with Chalmers drving for a basket and Coppenrath hitting a free throw. After going scoreless until halftime, Lavrinovic continued to revive, scoring now from under the basket. Cota penetrated for nice shot but AEK emphasized defense and forced Zalgiris into turnovers while Chalmers pulled off a five-point possesion and added a coast-to-coast dunk to keep vistors alive at 51-43 after 30 minutes.

Jankunas shined for Zalgiris early in the final quarter, hitting back-to-back baskets for breathing room at 55-43. Coppenrath and Lavrinovic traded baskets inside, then Jankunas and Rimac did the same. When Lavrinovic hit a triple to make it 62-49, Chalmers calmly matched that to bring the difference back down to 10 points with 5 minutes to go. The big play of the quarter came from the big player of the first half, Freeman, who drilled a triple, got fouled and hit the free throw for a back-breaking four-point play. When V idas Ginevicius hit from the arc next and Lavrinovic slammed a flashy dunk, the hosts had a 9-2 run and a 71-54 lead. But AEK didn't give up. Instead, the guests answered with 7-0 run behind Pelekanos and Giannis Kalampokis. But then Freeman fed Cota for a jumper and Beard added free throws. Chalmers nailed his third triple, but it was way too late for comeback as Jankunas and Beard protected the lead down the stretch to keep Zalgiris sharing the top spot in Group A.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Antanas Pakula, Kaunas
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Referees: FACCHINI, FABIO; ZAMOJSKI, JAKUB; SABETTA, ENRICO; SKERYS, KESTUTIS
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
Zalgiris15181836
AEK Athens1092427
End of Quarter1234
Zalgiris15335187
AEK Athens10194370
Zalgiris
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 GINEVICIUS, VIDAS 20:00 5   1/2 2/2       2 3 5     2 3 5
5 FREEMAN, REGGIE 35:30 20 2/4 4/9 4/6 1 3 4 4 1 3   1 2 4 18
6 BEARD, TANOKA 30:15 12 3/8 0/2 6/6 2 11 13 2 2 4 2 1 1 4 22
7 LAVRINOVIC, DARJUS 28:30 14 4/7 2/4     9 9 4 1 2 5   4 2 24
8 MACIULIS, JONAS 10:45 7 3/4 0/1 1/1 1   1   1     1 1 1 6
10 COTA, ED 30:45 6 3/4     1 3 4 2 1 5     3 3 7
12 DILYS, VILMANTAS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
13 JANKUNAS, PAULIUS 21:15 18 7/8   4/4 2 3 5     1 3   3 3 24
14 SILINSKIS, DARIUS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
15 SERAPINAS, SIMONAS 23:00 5 1/3 1/1     2 2 3   1     3   4
22 ALEKSANDROVAS, ANDRIUS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Team                   5       1   4
Totals 200:00 87 23/38 8/19 17/19 7 31 38 17 14 21 10 3 20 20 114
        60.5% 42.1% 89.5%
Head coach: SIREIKA, ANTANAS
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
AEK Athens
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 TAMIR, AMIT 1:30     0/2     1 1     1       1 -1
5 HAGAG, DROR 9:30     0/1             3     1   -5
6 RIMAC, SLAVEN 28:00 11 3/9 1/2 2/2   2 2   1 1 1 1   3 9
7 PELEKANOS, MICHALIS 36:30 16 5/10 2/3     3 3 2 2 1 1   3   14
9 MAGKOUNIS, SPYRIDON 2:45     0/1                   1 1 -1
10 KALAMPOKIS, GIANNIS 12:45 4 1/1   2/3   1 1   1 2     3 2 2
11 PAPANIKOLAU, NIKOLAOS 1:15                         1   -1
12 TSIARAS, GEORGIOS 22:15 4 2/4     1 3 4 1 3       2 1 9
13 COPPENRATH, TAYLOR 36:00 9 3/12 0/3 3/4 5 2 7 1 2 2 1 6 3 2 -2
15 PAPAIOAKIM, PANTELIS 19:00 4 2/5     1 4 5 1 1 1     5 1 3
17 ATHANASOULAS, IOANNIS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
19 CHALMERS, LIONEL 30:30 22 3/9 3/5 7/7 2 2 4 3 5 3   3 1 8 27
Team                   6         1 7
Totals 200:00 70 19/50 6/17 14/16 9 18 27 8 21 14 3 10 20 20 61
        38% 35.3% 87.5%
Head coach: KAKIOUSIS, ELEFTHERIOS
This game is not yet played

Head Coaches

SIREIKA, ANTANAS
Zalgiris
"I should be brief tonight. We achieved our goal, we won. We had really good motivation before the game. We showed great defense. You don't have to underestimate your opponent and give your best efforts if you want to win the game in the Euroleague. Tonight we played our defense very hard and the game was not very nice to watch. Anyway in the second half our defense didn't work well. I enjoyed our defense in the first 17 minutes but later we had to pay for every mistake. One can say that without Tanoka Beard we play better but we do not use him effectively. We don't push the ball to him. We have a really great player but we fail to take advantage of it."
KAKIOUSIS, ELEFTHERIOS
AEK Athens
"We had a very bad start. Maybe my players were pushed off the rhythm by the atmosphere here in Sporto Hale arena. Zalgiris is the better team and outcome of the game is logic."

Players

SERAPINAS, SIMONAS
Zalgiris
"I am really happy that coach trust me and let me play in the Euroleague games. We led during all game but lost the focus at the and AEK made it to come back. I believe we will play better in the next game and will avoid the mistakes we did tonight."
BEARD, TANOKA
Zalgiris
"I am coming back from my injury that kept me off the game for two months. So basically I am trying to fit with the team. I am probably at 80 percent right now. So I still have a long way to go and it reflects in my game. In the beginning of the match I couldn't find my game in offense but I did my very best in the defense and I think it compensated poor offense. Our team plays really good lately and there is great chemistry in the team. We don't have Ayuso in our roster anymore but every player is capable to step up and score his points and we saw it tonight. I believe that I still have some time to get my best shape and I will get better in the upcoming."
RIMAC, SLAVEN
AEK Athens
"Zalgiris played a really tough game. In some parts of the game they put very good pressure on us. They made a lot of easy points and fast breaks. That led them to the victory."
CHALMERS, LIONEL
AEK Athens
"They played hard tonight and the crowd was with them. They had good moments from the start of the game, but we fought back. Anyway, we had a poor start and couldn't come back later in the game. If we had won then I would say we did a great job and played well. We had a good third quarter and if we would play like that during the whole game I think we would be winners tonight. Zalgiris had homecourt advantage and they were a better team tonight. I don't think that I had a good game. I am adjusting to my team but we still need better understanding on the court. I think I will get better day by day."
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