It's a team sport, but with the game on the line Wolves Vilnius relied on two players to shoulder the scoring load.
Rasheed Sulaimon, Kristupas Zemaitis combined for 19 fourth-quarter points
Rasheed Sulaimon and Kristupas Zemaitis are players whose hands you want the ball in down the stretch and they showed why on Tuesday night in leading Wolves Vilnius to a 78-86 road win at Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana.
Sulaimon led the team with 22 points and 7 assists while Zemaitis went for 14 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals. The bulk of their production came in the last 10 minutes. In the fourth quarter, the former scored 10 and dished 2 assists and the latter scored 9. Wolves only had one fourth-quarter basket that those players did not either score or assist on.
Nearly all those points came in high-pressure situations after Jaka Blazic's free throws got Cedevita within 1, 67-68, with less than 6 minutes to play. Sulaimon set up Regimantas Miniotis for an open jumper and then canned a shot of his own to put the visitors up 5, only to see Blazic strike from deep to make it 72-74.
Zemaitis then traded threes with Klemen Prepelic before Sulaimon darted through the paint for a three-point play with 1:20 on the clock. After 2 Blazic free throws, Zemaitis struck again from behind the arc. And 3 free throws by Sulaimon in the final 30 seconds sealed the 78-86 outcome.
A beaming Sulaimon spoke about his team after the game and they most interesting part of what he said was the focus on team and character without nary a word about his own heroics.
"I just love my team. I love the character that we showed," he said. "Every game in the EuroCup is gonna be tough, especially on the road. We had a good lead in the first half, but… it was a little tougher [in the second half], but we showed great character, we stuck to our gameplan and we trusted in each other and we made some big plays down the stretch that led to our win, so I'm just really happy."
Interestingly, it marked the second week in a row in which the star player for Wolves spoke only about his team and not about his own performance, after Tre'Shawn Thurman led the team to an overtime victory last week.
After getting run off the floor in its season opener in Paris, Wolves took mighty Joventut Badalona to overtime on the road and then claimed its maiden EuroCup victory over Besiktas Emlakjet Istanbul. This was the team's first-ever road win and by now the rest of Europe must be aware that Wolves is a force to be reckoned with.