Big fourth quarter nets Zalgiris third place

U18 Zalgiris Kaunas placed third at the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Istanbul after defeating host U18 Anadolu Efes Istanbul 79-97. Liutauras Lelevicius tallied 27 points to lead the way for the 2003 and 2007 U18 continental champion. Dominykas Butka poured in 24 points, Titas Sargiunas added 19 points and Motiejus Krivas had 10 points for Zalgiris, which won the game thanks to a 14-32 fourth quarter. Efes led by 13 points in the second quarter, but could not hold on. Yunus Hamatoglu scored 18 points, Koralp Turk added 16 and Yigit Tekin 12 points in the loss.

The opening minutes of the game saw Tolga Kay score 4 points for Efes in taking a 10-4 lead. Ugnius Jarusevicius took his tally to 8 in pulling Zalgiris within 12-10 only to have the hosts pull away to lead 24-15 after 10 minutes. Muhammet Gunes drained a three-pointer early in the second quarter as Efes increased the gap to 31-18. Dominykas Butka took over with a pair of three-pointers among his 11 points to trim the deficit to 35-32. Zalgiris twice got the margin down to 2, but trailed 46-42 at the break.

Efes led 53-45 before Zalgiris came back and Dominykas Butka hit from deep to tie it at 53-53. Lelevicius made it 54-56 with a triple of his own. Turk later converted a three-point play and Hamatoglu knocked down a three-pointer at the buzzer to even things 65-65 after 30 minutes. Lelevicius converted a three-point play and hit a three-pointer as Zalgiris opened the fourth quarter on a 2-13 run to go ahead 67-78. Efes tried to get closer, but Sargiunas delivered the knockout punch with 2 three-pointers for a 76-91 advantage with less than 3 minutes left.