Kyle Wiltjer has a big game after a big family announcement.
Overjoyed Kyle Wiltjer leads historic Reyer offense in shootout win
Informes de partidos
3 Min lectura
Regular Season
Round 12 of 18
Regular Season
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Neptunas KlaipedaNEP
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Umana Reyer VeniceURV
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Overview
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Kyle Wiltjer started 2026 on cloud nine after an exciting family announcement and he carried that big news into a masterful performance to help short-handed Umana Reyer Venice to an important and historic victory on the road.
Wiltjer poured in a team-high 28 points as Reyer set a single-game club record in its 103-118 win at Neptunas Klaipeda in a battle of teams tied in Group A coming into the game. The combined 221 points snapped the record for the highest scoring non-overtime game in EuroCup history, and is the eighth-most ever.
Wiltjer topped his previous season best of 20 points as he knocked down 6 of 8 three-pointers to go with 3 rebounds and 4 assists for an index rating of 33. And that came after some big family news.
“A week ago I found out I’m having a baby boy so ever since this news I am playing amazing and we’re winning. So I am happy and I think it’s bringing good luck,” said Wiltjer, who has two daughters with his wife.
Wiltjer and the rest of the team was tremendous sharing the ball with 31 assists, blowing away Reyer’s previous best of 25 assists. Seven players scored in double figures with Chris Horton (16 points), Carl Wheatle (14) and Stefan Nikolic (14) all establishing career highs in scoring and Leonardo Candi evening his best of 12 points.
That brought Reyer to 6-6 record in the group - and 2-5 on the road - to go with the tiebreaker over 5-7 Lietkabelis with a sweep of the season series.
The performance by the Italian side was all the more impressive considering the team was playing without its third and fourth leading scorers Jordan Parks and Ky Bowman, respectively.
“We came here without two important players from the starting lineup. And the players from the bench stepped up and filled their shoes,” Reyer head coach Neven Spahija said.
Neptunas led the game by nine points in the second quarter and was up 54-46 late in the first half when Reyer scored 12 straight points to pull ahead. The game later was knotted 89-89 early in the final quarter when Reyer put together another 0-12 run over nearly 3 minutes to take control of a game otherwise lacking in defense.
“We had consistently good offense and finally in the last quarter way better defense. Neptunas is a very good and talented team. They are playing amazing offense. We knew that they are not a good defensive team and we took advantage of that,” Spahija said.
Neptunas came into the game as the third-highest scoring team in the competition and Reyer was keeping pace throughout. The 87-89 scoreline after three quarters set a new EuroCup record for most points after 30 minutes with 176 - topping the previous mark of 168 between Crvena Zvezda Belgrade and Dimano Sassari in 2012-13.
Neptunas has now given up 118 points in back-to-back games after losing in Round 12 at U-BT Cluj-Napoca 118-97. Gediminas Petrauskas’ team fell to 6-6 and 3-3 at home despite Richards Lomazs setting a new personal best with 28 points and Donatas Tarolis evening his top performance with 21 points.
“It looks like the fourth quarter gave them the lead but I believe the second quarter was the key moment in the game. We had a lead and I only took a couple minutes for Reyer to take control of the game,” Petrauskas said.
“It’s a tough game and a tough group. Each game is difficult but I am happy that we didn’t give up and we fought. We must play more mature basketball.”
