Turk Telekom Ankara remained undefeated at home and won back-to-back games for the first time this season by fighting off a tough Lietkabelis Panevezys effort 65-60 in Group A. With Henrik Rodl coaching his first game at the helm, Turk Telekom jumped out to an 11-point lead in the first quarter, but fell behind in the second. The game went back and forth before the hosts lost a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter and eventually survived thanks to a clutch three-pointer from Anthony Clemmons and a layup by JaJuan Johnson in the final minute.
Turk Telekom edges Lietkabelis to stay perfect at home, 65-60
Johnson scored 28 points with 7 rebounds to lead Turk Telekom, which improved to 5-3 and 4-0 at home. Clemmons chipped in 11 points and 4 assists and Alex Perez tallied 5 points and 11 assists. Lietkabelis dropped its fourth game out of its last five to fall to 3-5 despite Djordje Gagic and Panagiotis Kalaitzakis both scoring 11 points in the loss.
Related Videos
Gagic opened the scoring for the visitors, but Turk Telekom had a blistering start with Perez and Berk Demir both hitting three-pointers while Johnson scored 7 points in building a 15-4 cushion. After a timeout, Kaspars Berzins drained a triple and was answered from deep by Clemmons. Lietkabelis held Turk Telekom scoreless for nearly 6 minutes and Kalaitzakis tallied 6 points to trim the gap to 20-15 after 10 minutes.
Karolis Giedraitis’s free throw to start the second quarter trimmed the deficit to 4 points. Turk Telekom responded with the next 5 points to move ahead 25-16 as it took 4 minutes before Lietkabelis finally made its first basket - a Dovydas Giedraitis triple. Kristupas Zemaitis followed with a three-pointer of his own and jumper and Gediminas Orelik knotted the game at 27-27. Kalaitzakis added 3 free throws and Lietkabelis went back ahead for the first time since the opening basket 31-32 only to see Johnson’s dunk give Turk Telekom the lead, 33-32 at the break.
Vytenis Lipkevicius knocked down a three-pointer to start the second half and Zemaitis’s triple gave Lietkabelis a 35-38 advantage. Turk Telekom did a good job stopping Lietkabelis’ offense while Clemmons and Aubrey Dawkins hit three-pointers and Johnson scored 7 points in a 13-4 run to surge ahead 48-42. The score was 48-43 after 30 minutes.
Johnson continued his superb game with 3 more points and the lead was 53-43. Lietkabelis needed almost 2 minutes to score with Gagic’s free throws and Lipkevicius and Karolis Giedraitis followed with triples. Kalaitzakis evened the game again at 53-53. Dawkins finally got Turk Telekom out of its funk after nearly 5 minutes without a point as he buried a three-pointer. Johnson added a putback dunk and 2 free throws and the lead was 60-53 with 2 minutes to play. Lietkabelis was not done yet with Orelik draining a triple and Dovydas Giedraitis cutting it to 60-58 with 61 seconds left. Clemmons punched right back with a three-pointer of his own. At the other end, Gagic put back an offensive rebound to trim it to 3 with 23 seconds remaining. Johnson finished the game for good with an easy layin after a pass from Perez with 11 seconds left.