Wolves Twinsbet Vilnius registered their fifth consecutive victory, beating visiting Dolomiti Energia Trento 88-83 on Tuesday night. The win improved Wolves' record to 5-3 in Group A, while Trento dropped to 3-5, remaining winless in our road games.
Andrew Andrews scored 21 of his 23 points in the second half, including making 6 three-point shots. Four of his triples came in a 19-5 run bridging the third and fourth quarters, which turned a 53-59 deficit into a 72-64 lead, and the hosts never trailed again.
Tra'Shawn Thurman scored 14 of his 18 points in the first half and he pulled down 8 rebounds. Marek Blazevic had 14 points and Matas Jogela collected 10 points and 12 rebounds in the victory. Eigirdas Zukauskas scored 21 for Trento, Jordan Ford had 17 points, Quinn Ellis scored 14 and Myles Cale 12 in defeat.
The wolves grabbed an early lead behind 6 points from Blazevic to open a 10-3 edge, but the visitors replied. Trento's first three baskets were all three-pointers, a pair from Cale and one from Zukauskas and the latter also made a turnaround jumper to tie things up at 13-13. Wolves restored a slim lead thanks to Blazevic scoring another one inside and Thurman hitting a three-pointer. Toto Forray and Ford took it to the rim for Trento, but Thurman's half-court buzzer-beater made it 25-21 after 10 minutes.
Forray's floater helped Trento to another tie, 25-25, but Thurman scored 6 points, including a big two-handed dunk, to make it 31-27. However, Ellis drove for a dunk and then nailed a triple before a second-chance three from Zukauskas gave Trento its first lead 36-37. A transition triple from Cale, his third, extended the margin to 38-42 midway through the second quarter. Zukauskas made back-to-back triples and then added a pair of foul shots in his personal 0-8 run to make it 40-51 before Jogela finished the quarter with a pair of short-range baskets to get within 44-51 at halftime.
A triple from Jeffrey Taylor opened the second half and a 7-0 run that evened things at 51-51. But Ellis and Ford scored all the visitors' points in a 2-8 run to get Trento back in front, 53-59. But Andrews hit his first triple, followed by a pair of baskets from Thurman. A dunk by Jogela and another three-pointer from Andrews got Wolves back in front, making it 66-64 after three-quarters.
Andrews opened the fourth quarter with back-to-back three-point shots to lead 72-64 after 90 seconds. Lamb and Ford scored for Trento and a three-point play from Zukauskas cut it to 74-73. But a three-pointer from Andrews and a basket high off the glass from Jogela made it 79-73. Anthony Lamb took it to the rim with exactly 2:00 left, but Anthony Cowan answered with a jumper and a corner triple from Andrews with 1:11 left made it 84-77. Cale's second-chance three 30 seconds later gave the visitors hope, but Andrews nailed a jumper with 17 seconds to go and the hosts prevailed.
„Wolves Twinsbet“: Andrew Andrews 23, Tre‘Shawn Thurman 18 (8 reb) Marek Blaževič 14, Matas Jogėla 10 (12 reb), Anthony Cowan 9 (7 ast.), Jeffery Taylor 7, Garrison Brooks 4, Regimantas Miniotas 2, Kristupas Žemaitis 1. Vaidas Kariniauskas did not score, and Daniel Baslyk and Justinas Marcinkevičius did not appear on the court.
For the "Dolomiti Energia" team, Eigirdas Žukauskas scored 21 points, Jordan Ford 17, and Quinn Ellis 14 points.
Coaches’ comments
The next BKT EuroCup game Wolves Twinsbet will play on November 29 in Montenegro against Buducnost Podgorica.
(Photo by Rokas Lukoševičius)