Lietkabelis Panevezys took an important step toward the 7DAYS EuroCup knock-out rounds by downing Slask Wroclaw 88-65 at Cido Arena on Tuesday. Lietkabelis improved to 5-5 in Group A and has a 2-0 record against Slask, which dropped to 1-9.
Lietkabelis beats Slask again, 88-65
Panagiotis Kalaitzakis paced the winners with 18 points, Vytenis Lipkevicius added 16, Djordje Gagic had 14 and Dovydas Giedraitis 10 for Lietkabelis. Kodi Justice led Slask with 13 points and Aleksander Dziewa and Jakub Karolak each had 11 for the guests. Kalaitzakis stepped up early, getting help from Dovydas Giedraitis and Lipkevicius to give Lietkabelis a 29-19 margin at the end of the first quarter. Kalaitzakis remained on fire as Lietkabelis buried 9 first-half three-pointers for a 50-38 halftime advantage. Little changed after the break, as Gagic and Dovydas Giedraitis helped Lietkabelis extend the margin to 20 after 30 minutes as the hosts cruised until the final buzzer.
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Dovydas Giedraitis got Lietkabelis going with a put-back basket and fed Kalaitzakis for a fastbreak layup. Kaspars Berzins struck from downtown, prompting Slask to call timeout at 7-0. Ivan Ramljak stepped up with a three-point play, but Kalaitzakis and Kristupas Zemaitis each buried one from beyond the arc to make it a double-digit game, 13-3. Justice buried a triple and Dziewa added a three-point play for the visitors. Gagic and Dovydas Giedraitis kept the hosts in control, 20-9. Lipkevicius followed a coast-to-coast layup with a three-pointer to break the game open, 25-9. Michal Gabinski and Karolak each buried a triple to get Slask closer, 29-19, after 10 minutes.
Karolak kept pacing Slask with a backdoor layup early in the second quarter and Justice hit a wide-open three-pointer that caused Lietkabelis to stop the game at 29-24. Lipkevicius and Grantas Vasiliauskas each struck from downtown in an 8-0 run that Berzins capped with a layup for a 37-24 score. Langevine dunked in traffic and Travis Trice nailed a step-back jumper, but Berzins and an unstoppable Kalaitzakis boosted the hosts' lead to 45-31. Dovydas Giedraitis nailed one from beyond the arc and Vasiliauskas added a layup, but Dziewa and Gabinski got Slask within 50-38 at halftime.
Kalaitzakis beat the shot clock with an acrobatic floater soon after the break and erased Justice's triple with his own shot from downtown for a 55-41 Lietkabelis lead. Dziewa stepped up for Slask, but Gagic gave the hosts a 60-43 advantage. Ramljak took over with back-to-back layups before Vasiliauskas and Dovydas Giedraitis put Lietkabelis fully in charge, 65-47. Kalaitzakis ignited the crowd with a layup off a steal to fix the score at 67-47 after 30 minutes.
Dziewa scored in the low post early in the fourth quarter. Karolis Giedraitis found his first points, Martins Meiers downed a baseline jumper and Vasiliauskas gave Lietkabelis a 71-51 cushion with 7 minutes left. Zemaitis sank a three-pointer from the top of the key that sealed the outcome. Lietkabelis kept pushing, however, as Lipkevicius followed one from beyond the arc with a reverse layup that made it 79-51 after a 10-0 run. Szymon Tomczak scored twice down low and Justice dunked, but it was too little, too late.