Zalgiris Kaunas engineered a 77-87 road win at Virtus Segafredo Bologna in no small part thanks to a mature performance from new signing Isaiah Taylor. Brought in as a replacement for the injured Keenan Evans, who suffered a season-ending ruptured Achilles tendon in last week’s 86-66 home win over Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, Taylor joined Zalgiris last week alongside Achille Polonara from defending champion Anadolu Efes Istanbul.
Isaiah Taylor hit the ground running for Zalgiris
While Polonara somewhat struggled to make an immediate impact, Taylor emerged as one of the visiting team’s heroes as he scored 5 of his 10 points early in the fourth quarter, giving Zalgiris the lead for good.
The two teams were level 60-60 at the end of the third quarter and the visitors never looked back after Taylor made it 60-65 with a pair of crunch plays.
Virtus coach Sergio Scariolo acknowledged Taylor at the post-game press conference it was the contest’s pivotal moment.
“At the beginning of the fourth, Isaiah Taylor made the difference. A few plays down the stretch he rebuilt their lead which wasn’t unreachable but psychologically, it was a pretty big hit into our stomach,” Scariolo succinctly summed up Taylor’s contribution.
It overshadowed a sublime performance by Virtus playmaker Milos Teodosic, who came off the bench to finish the game with an impressive personal tally of 21 points and 12 rebounds. However, it wasn’t enough to complete his team’s comeback, after they had erased an early 14-point deficit to take their first and only lead of the night (59-58) late in the third quarter.
Enter Taylor early in the fourth and the lead changed hands for good, with Teodosic fizzing out in the home stretch, allowing Taylor to celebrate his first EuroLeague win in a Zalgiris shirt.