Baskonia came back from 16 down as Zalgiris collapsed in final 14 minutes
Baskonia rallies to beat Zalgiris, 70-83, for first road win
Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz rallied from 16 points down to surprise Zalgiris Kaunas 70-83 and finally collect its first road victory of the season. Baskonia went on a 0-16 run spanning the final two quarters to erase the big deficit and finished the game with the final 11 points to improve to 5-7 - and 1-5 away from home.
Chima Moneke scored 17 points to pace five Baskonia scorers in double figures with Donta Hall collecting 14 points, 11 rebounds and 3 blocks, Trent Forrest adding 14 points and Kamar Baldwin and Nikos Ragkovapoulos both chipping in 10 points. Zalgirs looked like it was flying high with 4 minutes left in the third quarter but crashed back to earth for a 7-5 record - including 5-2 at home. Lonnie Walker scored 9 of his 19 points in the closing minutes but they were not enough. Deividas Sirvydis contributed 14 points in the loss.
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The game went back and forth in the opening minutes with six lead changes and two ties when Markus Howard started a 2-11 run over nearly 5 minutes to put Baskonia ahead 11-19. Zalgiris netted the final 6 points of the first quarter to end it down 17-19.
Zalgiris inched closer with a Matt Mitchell free throw to close within 18-19. Ragkavopoulos snapped a more than 4-minute scoreless drought for Baskonia with a triple and Moneke added a three-pointer of his own to make it 20-25. The Zalgiris charge continued with a Walker three-pointer among his 7 points to pull ahead 31-28. Back-to-back triples from Sirvydis and Dovydas Giedraitis and a long ball from Alen Smailagic had Zalgiris up 42-33. And the gap was 42-35 at the break.
Baskonia tried to stay close and was down just 47-41. Laurynas Birtutis stepped up in the paint with 5 points and a block and Sirvydis knocked down a three-pointer as the cushion swelled to 57-41. The Zalgiris offense dried up for the next 4 minutes and Baskonia finished the third quarter with the final 11 points to trail just 57-52 after 30 minutes.
Moneke’s three and Forrest’s jumper started the final frame and increased the visitors' run to 0-16 to tie the game at 57-57. Smailagic ended Zalgiris’s nearly 6-minute scoreless drought. Baskonia, however, nosed ahead on a Moneke triple to lead 61-62. Baldwin and Rogkavopoulos both added three-pointers to put Baskonia up 61-68. Walker willed Zalgiris back into the game with 9 straight points to make it 70-72. Zalgiris could not hit another shot and Baskonia went 10 for 10 from the free throw line in the final 66 seconds.