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Photo: BNS
BNS photo
At the Citadele King Mindaugas Cup (KMT), “Šiauliai” came close to another miracle.
Man of the match
Effective transfers
8
The students of Antanas Sireika in Klaipėda had a deficit of 15 points before the retaliatory match 88:77 (21:17, 22:28, 21:14, 24:18) beat local “Neptune”, but it was small: the club from the port city entered the final four of the KMT.
The residents of Klaipėda will face the winner of the pair Kaunas “Žalgiris” and Pasvalys “Pienovaigždžiai” in the semifinals.
With 100 seconds left in the game, Elvaras Fridriksson scored a three-point foul and Šiauliai scored 14 points (85:71), but the hosts responded with four straight penalty shots in a row – 75:85.
With a triple, Martynas Varnas kept the Šiauliai people’s hopes of saving (88:75), but Norbert Giga’s contribution guaranteed the port city club a place in the final four of the KMT – 77:88.
With 7 minutes to go, Mindaugas Lukauskis scored a triple (75:61), and Neptūnas ‘substitutes’ bench was still penalized with a technical foul and Fridriksson had briefly given the guests a 15-point lead (76 : 61), but Klaipėda’s team managed to avoid a fiasco.
If successful, this would not be the first miracle created by the people of Šiauliai this season: in the eighth final, the Saulė city team eliminated the 25-point deficit against Alytus “Dzūkija” in the second leg.
Kaspars Berzins brought the former guests close to the sensation: 16 points (3/3 doubles, 3/8 trit., 1/1 penalty), 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 17 utility points in 24 minutes.
Žygimantas Janavičius stood out for the Klaipėda team with 15 points (1/3 double, 3/6 trit., 4/4 penalty), 4 rebounds, 4 assists, as well as errors and 15 utility points.
“Neptune”: Žygimantas Janavičius 15 (3/6 trit.), Matas Jogėla 14, Martynas Mažeika and Norbertas Giga 12 each.
“Šiauliai”: Kaspars Berzins 16 (3/8 trit.), Arminas Urbutis 14, Martynas Varnas 12 (6 res.), Andy Van Vlietas (8 rev. Elvar Fridriksson 9 (8 res., 9 outpaces).
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