He put on a show in the closing stages to put Barcelona to bed at Zalgirio Arena
Sylvain Francisco showed his clutch gene on Zalgiris debut
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Drawing energy from the home crowd inside Zalgirio Arena, Zalgiris Kaunas hit the ground running in the first half, holding FC Barcelona to just 31 points and taking a 12-point lead into the halftime interval.
Following the break, the guests turned the game around and tied the score at 48-48 with 2:07 minutes left on the clock in the third quarter. From that point on, Barcelona made the contest a tight affair, with Jabari Parker bringing his squad within 57-54 midway through the closing quarter.
Then, it was Sylvain Francisco’s time to shine. The Zalgiris guard came off the bench and carried the team on his shoulders, leading the hosts to a 74-67 victory. A step-back triple was followed by two baskets in traffic as he single-handedly extended Zalgiris’s lead to 64-56. The visitors fought back and scored four unanswered points, but Francisco came to the fore again, smoothly dribbling around and breaking Alex Abrines’s ankles before drilling a buzzer-beating triple with 2:17 remaining.
In the post-game interview, the Zalgiris summer signing credited a EuroLeague legend for his clutch three-pointer with less than 30 seconds to go that almost took the roof off Zalgirio Arena. “Shoutout to [Olympiacos Piraeus great Vassilis] Spanoulis, ‘cause that’s his move at the end of the day,” Francisco told EuroLeague TV.
Francisco finished the night with a game-high 19 points, 15 of which were scored in the last four and a half minutes. “I had to play my game and play for my team, too,” he added. “The third quarter was kind of messed up. I think I realized they were going to play defense on me and on every guy. So, I made sure I run the team first and then play for myself. And they let me do everything, so I was hot and I just took advantage.”
The 27-year-old guard may have stood out on Thursday, but head coach Andrea Trinchieri stressed that the team’s effort on defense was what allowed the hosts to clinch the victory. “I believe that every player helped us to win the game,” the Zalgiris boss told EuroLeague TV. “Everybody saw Francisco doing Francisco stuff. [He was] very important, a game changer. But I would also underline the defense of [Laurynas] Birutis, Arnas [Butkevicius] and Matthew Mitchell. We need each other. This is a team win.”
Keenan Evans’s departure in the summer may have been a blow for Zalgiris, but Francisco demonstrated on Thursday that the Lithuanian side may have well found a new clutch player who can step up in the final minutes. With its confidence sky-high after a season-opening victory over Barcelona, Zalgiris will travel to Greece next week to take on another EuroLeague powerhouse in Olympiacos Piraeus.