The Wolves Twinsbet (19-8) of Vilnius welcomed back their Latvian teammate against hapless BC Pieno Žvaigždės (4-23) of Pasvalys and dominated from start to finish - 111:79 (30:13, 30:31, 24:22, 27:13), in a match that saw the Betsafe-LKL return to Prienai for one night.
It was the fourteenth straight loss for the team from Pasvalys, while the Lithuanian capital's club picked up its fourth victory in a row. Having already been eliminated from the playoffs, BC Pieno Žvaigždės will try to pick up a win in their last three games, while Wolves Twinsbet have assured themselves of the third seed in the regular season.
The troops of Nedas Pacevičius established the tone of the game right from the jump and by the middle of the first quarter, the two teams were already separated by 10 points (16:6). The lead continued to balloon as Wolves Twinsbet ended the first canto with a solid lead, 30:13. In the second quarter, BC Pieno Žvaigždės ramped up their offence but continued to struggle on the defensive end - they won the quarter (31:30) but were still lagging by halftime, 44:60.
In the third quarter, the scoring for both teams slowed down, but it had little effect on the course of the game. Entering the last ten minutes of the faceoff - the team from Vilnius were ahead comfortably, 84:66. The match was practically over early in the final quarter as the Wolves lead proved to be insurmountable - 96:66. Vitalijus Kozys was the last remaining Wolves player to score, and his lay-up allowed the Vilnius club to breach 100 points yet again (100:71). The beatdown mercifully ended by the time the final whistle sounded.
This game saw the return of Artūrs Žagars after a six-month absence as he underwent rehabilitation to recover from a serious knee injury. The Latvian played 11.5 minutes on the court, made 1/6 from 3pt distance, assisted on a crowd-pleasing Jeffery Taylor alley-oop dunk, and collected 3 utility points.
Wolves Twinsbet: Jeffery Taylor 19, Vaidas Kariniauskas 14, Tre'shawn Thurman 12, Regimantas Miniotas 10, Christian Mekowulu 9, Rasheed Sulaimon and Garrison Brooks 8 each, Arnas Beručka and Vitalijus Kozys 7 each, Eigirdas Žukauskas and Kristupas Žemaitis 6 each, Artūrs Žagars 5.
BC Pieno Žvaigždės: Kadeem Jack and Jordan Watson 22 each, Simas Jarumbauskas 12.
(Photo: Rokas Lukoševičius)