Zalgiris rewards home fans with win over Panathinaikos 10

With their fans in the arena for the first time in half a year, Zalgiris Kaunas rewarded them with a hard-fought 81-74 victory over Panathinaikos OPAP Athens in Saturday’s second semifinal of the WE’RE BACK PRESEASON TOUR. Zalgiris will face AX Armani Exchange Milan in Sunday’s championship game.

Zalgiris led from tipoff to the final buzzer, but Panathinaikos came close at times, most notably at 59-56 early in the fourth quarter and 79-74 in the game’s final minute before the hosts closed it out.

Rokas Jokubaitis came off the bench to lead the winners with 16 points in under 18 minutes. Joffrey Lauvergne was everywhere with 15 points and 13 rebounds, while Marius Grigonis scored 14 and Thomas Walkup paired 13 points with 8 assists.

Nemanja Nedovic drilled 22 points and Pierre Jackson 18 for Panathinaikos.

Four of the Zalgiris starters scored early as Grigonis capped the opening minutes with a three-pointer good for a 13-6 lead. Jackson and Nedovic cut the difference to 15-10 but Zalgiris retained control and soon Lekavicius was getting behind the Zalgiris defense for a 23-17 advantage after 10 minutes.

Jokubaitis took the baton for Zalgiris in the second quarter, scoring a pair of three-point plays before Lauvergne added 2 baskets for a lead of 39-30. Jackson uncorked his third three-pointer to finish the half by bringing Panathinaikos within 43-38.

Walkup scored the first 5 points after halftime and then Grigonis connected with Lauvergne on a no-look pass as Zalgiris went up by double digits, 52-40. Nedovic danced for a layup and connected twice with Georgios Papagiannis for dunks in trying to lower the difference. Nedovic consummated that effort with another basket that preceded Ben Bentil’s free throw at 59-54 to end the third quarter.

Jackson opened the fourth quarter at 59-56, but in the next 3 minutes, Milaknis pumped in 2 triples that made it 67-58. Grigonis joined in from deep to make it 70-60. Nedovic and Jackson chipped away to get Panathinaikos within 73-68 with less than 3 minutes left, but a second consecutive press-break ending with a Walkup-to-Lauvergne dunk told the Zalgiris fans that they were going to Sunday’s final.