Wolves Twinsbet Vilnius (8-3) team took revenge for their earlier loss against Uniclub Bet-Juventus Utena (6-6) in the Lithuanian Basketball League's (Betsafe-LKL) first round. Alessandro Magro's squad defeated the injury-riddled Utena team 110:100 (19:26, 28:30, 28:20, 35:24) on the road.
In the first game, the Utena team won 72:67. Recently, Kęstutis Kemzūra's squad had won three consecutive Betsafe-LKL matches, but that streak came to an end. Wolves Twinsbet extended their winning run to six games. Interestingly, the last loss suffered by the Vilnius team in the Betsafe-LKL was against Utena.
At the start of the game, the hosts imposed their rhythm (17:8), and the lead quickly grew to double digits – 22:10. With three-pointers, the Vilnius team started closing the gap, trailing 19:26 at the end of the first quarter.
Although after a shot by Andrew Andrews the teams were separated by just 5 points (25:30), Utena's foreign players stabilized the situation – 35:25. The pattern repeated: a strong stretch by Wolves Twinsbet changed the flow of the game, allowing them to close the gap even further – 44:45. However, the "Wolves" did not manage to take the lead before halftime – 47:56.
That success came later. Anthony Cowan’s free throws put Wolves Twinsbet ahead (64:63), but Uniclub Bet-Juventus didn’t allow their opponents to pull away. The evenly matched third quarter ended without either team gaining a tangible lead – 76:75.
The Vilnius team took advantage of their opponent's fatigue and pulled ahead – 81:76. Both teams exchanged a flurry of three-pointers, but Andrews' leadership kept the visitors in front – 89:82. As the situation worsened, Kemzūra was forced to call a timeout. However, the aforementioned Wolves player soon converted free throws (91:82), and the hosts struggled to catch up.
The lead was solid (99:86), and the hosts failed to restore intrigue in the remaining 4 minutes. Although the game’s outcome was clear, Vaidas Kariniauskas and Cowan received technical fouls at the end.
For the Vilnius team, Cowan delivered his season’s best performance, scoring 21 points, dishing out 9 assists, and earning a 30 efficiency rating.
Utena’s team was without Žygimantas Skučas, Tookie Brown, and L.J. Thorpe, who were injured. Uniclub Bet-Juventus played with a seven-player rotation, while Titas Didžgalvis appeared on the court for just 83 seconds.
The Vilnius team was missing Jeff Taylor and Daniel Baslyk only entered the game at the very end of it.
"Wolves Twinsbet": Andrew Andrews 25, Anthony Cowan 21 (9 assists), Kristupas Žemaitis 13, Tre’Shawn Thurman (9 rebounds) and Marek Blaževič 11 each, Matas Jogėla 10, Vaidas Kariniauskas 7, Regimantas Miniotas 6, Arnoldas Kulboka 5, Daniel Baslyk 1. Garrison Brooks did not score, Justinas Marcinkevičius did not play.
"Uniclub Bet-Juventus": Dominic Green 32, Arnaldo Toro 17 (12 rebounds), Laurynas Beliauskas 16 (9 rebounds).
(Photo by Rokas Lukoševičius / LKL)