Wolves still master of its own destiny after sweeping Gran Canaria
Wolves' Blazevic, Andrews made up for limited output from Cowan, Thurman

Wolves Twinsbet Vilnius shrugged off poor shooting nights by its top two scorers and still came up with enough offense to beat one of the best defenses in the BKT EuroCup and remain a master of its own destiny.
Wolves received a combined 10 points from Anthony Cowan and Tre’Shawn Thurman but produced an impressive 88-76 victory over Dreamland Gran Canaria for an 8-8 record in Group A.
Cowan averaged 16.9 points coming into the home game and scored a season-low 7 points while Thurman had just 3 points - 10.7 points below his average. Cowan helped in other ways with 10 assists and 3 steals and Thurman picked up 5 rebounds.
“Everybody has to understand and accept that if you want to be part of a great team, it doesn’t matter how many minutes you play, it doesn’t matter how many points you score, it only matters that you show up offensively and defensively to help the team win the way we prepared the game,” Wolves head coach Alessandro Magro said.
“[Cowan] is the type of player who can score 6 out of 8 three-pointers. It can happen that you have a bad night shooting, but you see the will that he had - to play with the others, to create, to help and facilitate the short-roll passes. The defense, the important steal.”
Wolves still managed to score 88 points against Gran Canaria, which ranked second in defensive index rating and opponents scoring and allowed the fewest assists.
A major reason for that was Marek Blazevic, who blew away his previous career high with 27 points - 11 more than his previous best. The 23-year-old big man, who averaged 8.5 points coming into the game, also contributed 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block and 8 fouls drawn, which resulted in 13 of 13 free throws.
“We came prepared. We know that Gran Canaria is probably one of the best teams in EuroCup. They have a great history of winning this competition. So it brings more energy for us and more motivation,” Blazevic said.
Game Videos
“He was ready,” Magro said of Blazevic. “Everything he did was pretty solid. I’m really happy for him and his journey. He is growing game by game, being more consistent, more solid at both sides.”
The other major offensive weapon was Andrew Andrews, who quickly forgot his nightmare showing from last week as he missed all 10 of his field goal attempts in scoring 4 points against Besiktas Fibabanka Istanbul. Andrews buried 3 three-pointers and converted all 10 of his free throw attempts for 25 points against Gran Canaria to make up the difference.
“This was one of the best games we had so far. We are alive and we showed ourselves that we can really compete,” Magro said.
But the road is still long for Wolves.
“It was the first of three finals. Fortunately we won the first one and now we have to go to Italy [against Dolomiti Energia Trento] and play the second one and then Buducnost for the last. We are masters of our own destiny,” the coach said.