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Photo: BNS
BNS photo
Panevėžys Lietkabelis, who had achieved the required advantage over Andorra’s MoraBanc throughout the match, was very close to his goal, but Nenad Chanak’s troops were ultimately unable to reach it.
Man of the match
After a gap of 10 points, Gytis Masiulis lost from distance, and in the final seconds and with the home team leading 77:69, Paulius Valinskas missed a decisive shot from long range.
After an inconvenient shot, Nacho Llovet grabbed the ball in defense and the MoraBanc basketball players jumped for joy. Losing up to 10 points in Panevėžys guaranteed them a place in the Top 16 stage.
“It was a great launch, we needed three points,” Chanakas commented on his team’s latest attack on the BasketNews.lt website. – We no longer had a minute of rest, but if that was the end of the attack after the match, I would be happy for that occasion.
Of course, we cannot be happy with the result, because we lost our chances of entering the “Top 16”. But on the other hand, I am proud of my players, because the team has gone through a difficult time, which is now past. We stayed together, fighting until the last second, as we promised. Now we have to keep working and prepare for the battles in LKL. “
After a painful defeat, the specialist did not resent the last shot, but played the first half, when Lietkabelis could not face the rivals under his own basket.
The MoraBanc basketball players repeated their attacks twice, until they finally scored points. This did not allow the Panevėžys people to part ways, even though 35:28 was ahead in the middle of the second quarter. In the end, only two points of this advantage remained in the halftime match (36:34).
Panevėžys Raincoat / Schedule
“We paid the price not for the last pitch, but for 11 rebounds and 11 errors in the first half,” Chanak continued. “We have shown insufficient energy, we have not resisted our people, we have not defended against one in the third quarter, we managed to get well at the end, but it was not enough.”
After a long break, Clevin Hannah scored 27 points for Lietkabel and improved his personal record in the European Cup. During the first two halves, Chanako’s students passed it with 9 points earned, which was their average before this meeting.
“We had problems with the fouls of Kyle Vinales and Margiris Normantas, our highs did not help the defenders well and that was enough. Also, Hannah is a good basketball player, ”said Chanak.
Lietkabelis lost the opportunity to move up to the next stage with a home game with Monaco Basket, before which the team led by Chanako had no opportunity to play away 57:82.
The people of Panevėžys suffered many such painful defeats in the first round of the regular season: Virtus Bologna fell 61:76 and Lokomotiv Krasnodar led by Mantas Kalnietis and Mindaugas Kuzminskas was not matched.
Čanakas hopes that the experience of fighting with clubs of the highest level will be demonstrated in the remaining fights on the home front, where Lietkabelis LKL marches for the second time and together with Kaunas Žalgiris records the longest series of seven wins in a row.
Some of these teams will put an end to that march, because they should both meet in Panevėžys on Sunday.
“There were three Euroleague teams in our group and this experience will be really useful for us. It’s a shame because I was sure we would be competitive.” It is not me who justifies it, but due to the COVID-19 virus, we have not been able to train properly for more than six weeks, and we are the team that needs that practice, “said Chanak.
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