Monk

The first confrontation between teacher and student – Kazys Maksvytis played for the first time in his career against former pupil Donatas Motiejūnas. Kaunas “Žalgiris” dictated his terms for most of the match, but after the final whistle from the referees, “Monaco” were happy with the victory.

The first half was played by the Lithuanian team and Latvian Rolandas Šmitas. The tall man scored 11 points, and after Keenan Evans’ three-pointer late in the quarter, the visitors led 26-17.

Mike James’ mind may have been on France’s All-Star Day clash, which took place at the same time as Monaco-Zalgiris. Before the long break, the tournament star didn’t make a single shot from the game, scored just 2 points (2/2 penalties) and had 2 assists.

In the third quarter, there was another mistake by M. James, after which the coach of “Monaco” threw the ball into the structure of the “Žalgiris” basket and earned himself not only an offensive foul, but also a technical penalty. The American returned to the game at the end of the match, but was unable to make an impact.

In the 35th minute of the match, “Žalgiris” was still ahead 72:66, but then Munich striker Yakuba Ouattara scored twice, Elie Okobo stole two balls, turning them into a layup, and after that two more points from Y. Ouattara , the home team took the lead for the first time since the game initially broke out.

E. Okobo’s three-pointer in the last minute of the match extended “Monaco”‘s lead to 83:79, but Edgars Ulanovs provoked three free throws, made them and brought “Žalgiris” closer with a minimal deficit. On the other side, E. Okobo scored only one free throw, but the rest of the time K. Maksvytis’s team did not organize a winning or a draw attack.

“Nothing took long. Two teams deserved to win, but luck smiled at one of them. I have no complaints against my students,” said K. Maksvytis after the failure.

“A special win against a team that knows exactly what they’re doing in every moment of the match. We tried to stop them, especially at the end of the match we tried to stop them from attacking from comfortable positions. A great win, even if we didn’t have good pace in attack and in defense. Winning such a victory is happiness, said the rival’s coach Saša Obradović. – We broke through the game thanks to the defense. First of all, E. Okobo set the tone, but also Y. Ouattara and M Strazelis worked well. They helped us a lot.”

E. Okobo, who played fantastically for Monaco, scored 22 points, rebounded 4, made 9 assists and collected 35 useful points.

“We fought until the end. In the first half they scored a lot of easy points in one-on-one or offensive rebounds, we corrected and in the second half we did a much better job, moving the ball more and involving everyone in the attack. Okobo said. – I tried to help win the victory. We were aggressive and we didn’t give up. Getting a home victory before the new year is a lot of fun.”

Lithuanian Donatas Motiejūnas from Monaco played 22 minutes, scored 7 points, rebounded 6 balls, made 2 mistakes and collected 11 efficiency points.

“A very difficult victory. We knew the game of Zalgiris that they would fight and it would not be an easy game. They played an almost perfect first part of the game, which made us hope that they would be a bit tired in the second half. And so it happened, and we took control of the match. Congratulations to “Žalgiris”, who played well. This is a very tough opponent, said D. Motiejūnas. – This is a special victory. I am rooting for Zalgiris during the season because it’s my hometown team. I’m glad that after last season’s failure, the club has changed everything and is showing great basketball this season. I wish them more victories and playing in the playoffs.”

Zalgiris will close the first round of the EuroLeague next week at home with a match against Istanbul Fenerbahçe.