The visitors lost a solid lead late but still pulled off a thrilling victory
Zalgiris keeps its cool to beat tough Paris and get back on track
Game Report
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 15 of 38
Regular Season
Paris BasketballPBB
105108
Zalgiris KaunasZAL
Overview
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Zalgiris Kaunas had been struggling coming into its game at Paris Basketball, winning just one of its last five EuroLeague games, but the Lithuanian team did a strong job fighting off the French side in a thrilling back-and-forth battle that helped it wrestle out of its slump.
Only after the 19th lead change was the game decided thanks to Azuolas Tubelis hitting a running layup with 11 seconds to play for a 105-108 victory, which boosted Zalgiris’s record to 9-6.
“It’s a great win for our team, a great team win,” said coach Tomas Masiulis. “If you look at the stats, we only played good defense in the third quarter. We know it is not easy to play against them. They are a very fast running team and they shoot, but we are happy that we stayed together at the end of the game when they came back. It was a great team win. I am happy for my guys.”
Zalgiris took the third quarter 17-32 and that gave the visitors the push they needed. Paris led by 10 points in the second quarter and Zalgiris opened its own 10-point lead at 81-91. Paris answered with the next 10 points to even the game, and after Zalgiris surged ahead 95-102 with 2 minutes left, Paris punched back with the next eight points for the first of four lead changes in the final 59 seconds.
The key for Zalgiris was staying together, as Masiulis said: “We didn’t panic.”
Tubelis’s put-back was answered by a jumper from Amath M’Baye before Tubelis provided the final heroics.
He was one of a number of Zalgiris players to enjoy an excellent performance, finishing with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Sylvain Francisco was the team’s main weapon with 26 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists, while Nigel Williams-Goss had 18 points and 10 assists, Laurynas Birutis tallied 17 points and 6 rebounds, and Edgaras Ulanovas chipped in 14 points and 4 assists.
Above all, Masiulis was really happy about Francisco’s development.
“He’s playing for the team. He’s creating and making assists. This is the biggest improvement in his game,” said Coach Masiulis. “One on one, he can score on anybody. But he understands he can create and make other players better if he wants.”
Francisco (28), Birutis (27), Tubelis (26) and Williams-Goss (25) all had a PIR of 25+ while Ulanovas just missed the 20 PIR mark at 19. That would have been just the fifth time in EuroLeague history where five teammates had 20 or more PIR – an achievement reached most recently by Chorale Roanne in 2007-08.
“The whole team did it. We got the win, but I am proud of myself for helping the team get the away win,” said Francisco.
And Williams-Goss added: “We just tried to stay focused and execute for 40 minutes and try to give ourselves a chance to pull out a win. For us this was a bounce back.”
Paris, for its part, was playing its first home game since November 13 but dropped its fourth straight game for a 5-10 record and 3-5 at home. Nadir Hifi led Paris with 27 points and M’Baye finished with a career-high 23 points in the loss.
“Pain. This is the umpteenth game we lost in crunch time. We could have executed better in the last four minutes. We missed a couple of very good shots and that changed the game,” said Paris head coach Francesco Tabellini.
“But overall there was an improvement because we usually struggle with just two good quarters and two bad defensive quarters. Today we only had one, but it was enough for Zalgiris to get the lead. There is still space for improvement, and we will get there.”
