

"Well, what can I tell? Probably the best describing word would be 'wow'."
The above quote is how Wolves Vilnius head coach Kestutis Kemzura summed up his team's historic victory over Besiktas Emlakjet Istanbul on Tuesday night.
It's not often that a coach leans on the word "Wow" so prominently to describe a game. Perhaps the most famous example game from one of Kemzura's mentors.
Kemzura served as David Blatt's assistant coach at four different clubs – Dynamo St. Petersburg in Russia, Benetton Treviso in Italy, Darussafaka Istanbul in Turkey and Olympiacos Piraeus in Greece. When Blatt won the Turkish Airline EuroLeague in 2014 with Maccabi Tel Aviv, he opened the post-game press conference with the following story.
"One of the greatest quotes that I ever read in my life was from the last moments of Steve Jobs’s life. Did anyone ever see or hear what he said before he passed away? He was a great man, one of the great modern-day leaders and visionaries. Did anyone ever hear about what he said just before he passed away? I can’t believe you didn’t see this story. He said, before he passed away, the last word he said was: 'Wow.' "
Surely Wolves' exciting victory over Besiktas does not compare to winning the EuroLeague, but for Kemzura and Wolves, it was a historic watershed moment. Not only was it was the club's first-ever home game in the BKT EuroCup, but Wolves rallied to win the game in the closing seconds. And the victory was also Wolves' first in competition history.
"I like to use a lot of examples form basketball in our lives," Kemzura continued in the press conference. "You have to fight until the end and it's not over till it's not over. I'm very proud of my guys that we fought until the end… It was a tough game, as we expected. Our opponent came back in the second half more aggressive, more physical and we struggled. We struggled to execute, we struggled to score."
Kemzura then pointed to his heart to show what earned the team the victory.
The stats back that up as Wolves outnumbered Besiktas in nearly all the hustle categories including offensive rebounds (17-11), second-chance points (17-15), points off turnovers (13-9), fastbreak points (8-4), rebounds (33-28) and steals (5-4).
Though some of those advantages may be slim, the game was decided by just 2 points. In fact, the game-winning basket with 7.7 seconds left was the result of a Tre'Shawn Thurman's steal.
"I'm almost lost for words," Thurman said afterwards.
The Wolves forward was a hero so many ways after posting 31 points and grabbing 7 rebounds. He made 8 of 9 two-pointers and 4 of 6 threes in amassing a PIR of 37. But none of that mattered to him as much as the main goal.
"All I thought about was the win. That’s all I cared about," Thurman said.
Indeed, it was a historic victory in Vilnius.