Zalgiris overpowers ASVEL to record first road win 10

Zalgiris Kaunas is off the mark on the road in the 2022-23 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season after beating ASVEL Villeurbanne 93-76 at Astroballe on Thursday night.

Tomas Dimsa scored a team-high 21 points for Zalgiris, while Lukas Lekavicius (16 points), Keenan Evans (12 points) and Edgaras Ulanovas (12 points) also got into double figures for the visitors. Defensively, Kevarrius Hayes was a menace for Zalgiris, finishing the game with 5 blocks.

ASVEL’s leading scorer on the night was Jonah Mathews with 15 points, with Amine Noua and Nando De Colo chipping in with 12 and 11 points, respectively, in the losing effort.

ASVEL got off to a good start in the first quarter, twice opening up a five-point lead over Zalgiris, 15-10 and 17-12, but the Lithuanians continued to chip away and managed to close the opening 10 minutes down two points, 22-24. In that first quarter, Jackson Cartwright-Parker erupted with 8 points in the opening 3:06, while Nando De Colo had 7 points after going 3-of-3 from two-point range and 1-of-1 from the free-throw line.

The change of quarter saw Tomas Dimsa come to the fore, as he added to his 2 first-quarter points with 8 in 41 seconds, which came between 8:09 and 7:28. Suddenly, Zalgiris was up 33-28. At the 4:29 mark, Zalgiris went up by eight points to establish the largest lead of the game, having gone on a 14-3 run. ASVEL responded, but Zalgiris managed to keep putting points on the board, going into the break with a four-point advantage, 50-46.

Dimsa continued his red-hot shooting in the third quarter, hitting his 4th three-pointer to make it 59-52, but that sparked a 10-1 ASVEL run that saw the hosts take the lead, 62-60. Come the end of the third quarter, Zalgiris led by two points, 69-67. Fifteen seconds into the final period, Dimsa missed his first shot from the field after previously going 6-of-6, including 5-of-5 from three. ASVEL tried to make life difficult for Zalgiris, but it was unable to carve into the visitors’ lead, which grew significantly in the last 2 minutes until it finished a 17-point victory, 93-76.