In the absence of Nigel Williams-Goss, the Frenchman starred in the fourth quarter to guide Zalgiris to a second straight win
Sylvain Francisco puts on a show at Zalgirio Arena to bat aside Carsen Edwards, Virtus
Отчеты о матчах
3 Минутное чтение
Regular Season
Round 7 of 38
Regular Season
Zalgiris KaunasZAL
8665
Virtus BolognaVIR
Overview
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With the MVP of the Month award set to be decided in the coming days, Sylvain Francisco has added further weight to his case with a dominant showing on Tuesday night.
Francisco inspired Zalgiris Kaunas to an 86-65 home win over Virtus Bologna, which was the team’s second straight victory and improved the Lithuanian side to 5-2 on the season. Much of the pre-game talk surrounded the battle that would ensue between the French guard and Virtus’s Carsen Edwards, but in the end it was a one-sided contest.
In just under 25 minutes on the floor, Francisco posted 23 points and a 35 PIR, both season highs, in addition to a career-high 10 assists, making this his first-ever double-double in 74 career appearances in the EuroLeague. Edwards, however, was held to a season-low 9 points – the first time he has scored in single digits since Round 22 last season, 20 games ago.
“I’m a creator and I feel like the past three games, I was watching film and I didn’t create the way I was supposed to create,” Francisco said in the locker room after the game. “I was shooting the ball more. So for me, it was just to go to the paint, paint touch, and find the guys. That’s what I did.
“When everything was open, I was feeling it and shooting the ball. That’s what Coach was telling us – just to go. When we’ve got the ball, fast break or we’ve got to slow it down. But we’ve got to do a paint touch; we’re going to find everybody. When we’re sharing the ball, we find good things.”
Just 12 days ago, Zalgiris threw away a 16-point lead in a 78-89 defeat at home to EA7 Emporio Armani Milan. This time, Tomas Masiulas’s group was without Nigel Williams-Goss, who suffered a hamstring injury in the team’s bounce-back win at FC Barcelona in Round 6. That meant more pressure on Francisco’s shoulders.
But as we all know, Francisco thrives in these circumstances.
Even when his shots were not falling early in the game, he turned provider by dishing 4 assists in the first quarter as Zalgiris led 25-11 after 10 minutes, having opened the contest with a 17-2 run. Virtus ended up weathering the storm and slowly but surely mounted a comeback, trailing 42-33 at halftime and 58-50 after 30 minutes. Then, Matt Morgan made back-to-back baskets to start the fourth quarter (58-54), sending alarm bells around Zalgirio Arena.
Enter: Sylvain Francisco.
Last season, his first with Zalgiris, he developed a reputation as one of the EuroLeague’s best fourth-quarter players – and on Tuesday night, he showed everyone that is still very much the case.
In the final period alone, Francisco scored 13 points, dished 4 assists, grabbed 1 rebound, drew 3 fouls and didn’t turn the ball over once. Crucially, it was his three-pointer that reenergized the crowd at 61-54. From there, he simply played the role of conductor, guiding both his teammates and the fans in the stands as Zalgiris put the game to bed.
“The team was already on me most of the time, so we had to figure it out together what we had to do,” Francisco told EuroLeague TV in his post-game interview. “I was dishing the ball, waiting for the ball to come to me, and doing what I had to do. That was the most important thing – to be patient, and when it’s time to cook, I’ve just got to do it.”
To top off his night, Francisco found Azuolas Tubelis for an incredible dunk with 43 seconds to go before putting the cherry on top of the win with a three-pointer of his own with 4 seconds remaining.
“I think I just let the game come to me and make sure my guys eat, mostly,” he said in the locker room post-game. “Be more confident and be more focused. I think the last three games I had were a little bit tricky. I had to get back to where I am, but I’ve got to keep going. We’ve got to keep going.”
Francisco and Zalgiris will look to keep going when they host LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne on Thursday night. Virtus, however, stays on the road at it takes on FC Bayern Munich in Edwards’s first return to SAP Garden.
