The Lithuanian side has withstood injuries to key players and now is showing what it can do
Alessandro Magro excited to finally have full Wolves roster available
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Alessandro Magro was a happy man after his Wolves Twinsbet Vilnius team survived a massive back-and-forth battle with Joventut Badalona. That is because the head coach finally had his full roster available for the Round 13 battle.
There were 30 lead changes in the first three quarters before Wolves finally pulled away for a 91-80 win for a 7-6 record in the fight for the playoffs.
“We had good energy. The last couple of games in the domestic league and EuroCup we didn’t start with great energy and gave up a lot of points. Today the defense was better. It wasn’t perfect but it was better. But our energy, chemistry and having our teammates’ backs was the key,” said Kristupas Zemaitis, who led the way with 17 points.
Zemaitis had his best game of the season as he had totaled a combined 18 points in his last five EurpCup games. He was one of six Wolves players to score in double figures.
“We are for sure happy about the result of this game. It is for sure an important win. I was happy to finally have the complete roster to play,” said Magro.
Lithuanian international Arnoldas Kulboka has now played five straight games – scoring 9, 12 and 10 points in his last three contests and getting a bit more playing time each game. Jeffery Taylor returned to the court for the first time since Round 9 and also had 10 points.
Magro is excited to see what Kulboka can do for his team this season.
“I watch him every day and every game and every day he’s getting better and better. He’s strong enough to manage the load. He’s taking care of his knee. He’s not rushing too much. But he is able to play more minutes on the court each game,” the coach said.
“This is the kind of roster that I would like to see – picking the best lineups, offensively and defensively according to what we need in that moment,” Magro said. “We had six players in double digits, we had seven players who played more than 20 minutes but nobody played more than 25. This is the system I would like to rely on. I would like to thank my players because they knew the value of this game and they gave everything.”
And now Coach Magro has everything he had hoped for at the start of the season.