Missed free throws cost Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade a chance to beat Zalgiris Kaunas on the road on Sunday night.
Telling numbers: Free-throw accuracy was the difference
Dejan Davidovac played an excellent game and finished with a season-high 18 points, but he also missed a free throw that could have clinched the win with 7.6 seconds remaining. If he had made both, Davidovac would have put Zvezda up 4. Instead, he missed the first and then everything unraveled. The Zvezda defense did not foul Tyler Cavanaugh when he got the ball late and the Zalgiris forward had enough time to set himself and tie the game with a clutch triple.
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Davidovac wasn’t alone in missing free throws. His team shot 14 for 19 from the stripe 973.7%), with 4 of those misses coming in the fourth quarter. In contrast, Zalgiris was 20 for 23 (87.0%) on free throws and made 5 of 6 in the overtime period.
Zalgiris went inside often and converted 28 of 45 two-pointers (62.2%), which was the club’s season-high for two-pointers made. Josh Nebo led the way by making 8 of 10 two-point shots and Edgaras Ulanovas was 5 for 8. The hosts also outrebounded Zvezda 37-32.