“NEPTŪNAS” SUCCUMBED TO THE ISRAELI CHAMPIONS IN A ROAD GAME (COMMENT)

Klaipėda, “Neptūnas” succumbed to the Israeli champions - Jerusalem, “Hapoel”, who even has seven Americans and three players from the Israeli national team, with a score of 59:74.

The players from Klaipėda left for Israel without their main team player Daniel Ewing; the first half of the game they more or less struggled against the mighty team from Israel - during halftime they behind by only 6 points - 30:36; however, after the third quarter the teams were divided by a two-digit difference - 57:44 and the players of Dainius Adomaitis had to come to terms with yet another defeat.

By the way, the players from Klaipėda gave a little bit of hope for their fans in the fourth quarter; after legionnaire Travis Bader got five points, the difference melted up to 7 points - 38:45. Nevertheless, later on the players from Klaipėda got stuck in the opponent’s defensive grip and “Hapoel” amassed a 15 point lead.

“Hapoel” - “Neptūnas” - 74:59 (22:16, 14:14, 21:14, and 17:15)

“Hapoel”: Earl Rowland - 17, Donta Smith -16 (7 rebounds, 6 assists), D'or Fischer - 11, Tony Gaffney - 10 pts.

“Neptūnas”: Travis Bader - 17 (5/9 3-pointers), Martynas Mažeika - 11, Mindaugas Girdžiūnas - 10, Jerai Grant - 9, Arnas Butkevičius - 6, Simas Galdikas and Donatas Zavackas - 3 pts each.

The Jewish team won the fight for rebounds (41:34) and made fewer turnovers (14:20).

Dainius Adomaitis (Head Coach of “Neptūnas”): “It was a very difficult road game. It is especially difficult to play without Daniel Ewing, the main player. Once more we are assured that this player is very important to us. Those 20 turnovers that we made allowed the opponents to score 15-17 quick points. In the first half of the match we lost the fight for rebounds and granted the opponents too much seconds chances. Due to a lack in rotations, Mindaugas Girdžiūnas played 36 minutes and due to exhaustion those turnovers appeared.

On October 28th (Wednesday), in the Eurocup tournament the players from Klaipėda are going to face the team Volgograd, “Krasny Oktyabr” (Russia) in “Švyturio Arena” at 19:00. This will be the third match for “Neptūnas” in the Eurocup. So far the players from Klaipėda are left without a victory in this tournament.

Before the match versus the Russians, the players from Klaipėda are going to play against Panevėžys “Lietkabelis” on a road game (October 25th). This will be an LKL match.