The reigning champs remained atop the Group B standings with a 5-0 record.
Gran Canaria too strong for Canak-led Lietkabelis



Dreamland Gran Canaria remained perfect in the BKT EuroCup with a comfortable 88-77 home victory over 7bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys thanks to a balanced performance. Miquel Salvo scored 15 points to pace four Gran Canaria scorers in double figures with Nicolas Brussino collecting 13 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals and Ethan Happ tallying 13 points, 9 rebounds and 3 steals. Two other players had at least 8 points for Gran Canaria, which improved to 5-0. The game had a bittersweet taste for the reigning champion as John Shurna had to be helped off the court in the fourth quarter with a left leg injury.
Lietkabelis dropped to 1-4 despite Martynas Varnas and Paulius Valinskas leading the team with 17 points each. Lietkabelis’s starters combined for just 27 points. It was the first game with Nenad Cenak back as head coach after he replaced Roberts Stelmahers.
Brussino started well for the hosts with 4 points and 1 assist in a 9-2 early run as Lietkabelis had only one score in the first 4 minutes. The guests finally scored their second basket after the midway mark of the quarter and managed some stops to knot the game 11-11. AJ Slaughter and Salvo both knocked down triples to make it 19-13. Gran Canaria led 21-15 after 10 minutes.
Varnas and Valinskas both moved to 7 points scored as Lietkabelis crawled within 21-20. Gran Canaria showed all its class at both ends with Ferran Bassas and Salvo hitting triples in 12-2 run over more than 4 minutes to extend the cushion to 33-22. Lietkabelis managed to trim the gap to 7 points with the next 4 points only to have Gran Canaria push the lead to 38-26. The score was 38-31 at the break.
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Lietkabelis came out strong in the second half and Deividas Sirvydis knocked down a triple to make it 42-38. Gran Canaria answered from deep with three-pointers from Andrew Albicy and Brussino and a three-point play from Ben Lammers extended the lead to 55-42. Lietkabelis was not ready to go down with Gedimas Orelik hitting a triple and Varnas scoring 6 points to get within 62-56. Gran Canaria was up 67-60 after 30 minutes.
After Gran Canaria hit the first 5 points of the fourth quarter, Varnas scored two straight baskets and the lead was 72-64. As all game, the hosts responded with Shurna hitting a three-pointer to start a 11-0 spurt for the biggest cushion in the game 83-64 with less than 5 minutes to go. It did not get closer than 10 points the rest of the way.