“Neptūnas” defeated the team “Piano žvaigždės” in Klaipėda (comments)
The players of Klaipėda, “Neptūnas” started the year 2016 with a victory – in the Lithuanian Basketball League (Tete-a-Tete Casino-LKL) championship after an unsettling fight they brought down the team Pasvalys, “Pieno žvaigždės” to their knees in “Švyturio Arena” with a result of 90:79.
This is already the tenth victory of “Neptūnas” (8 defeats) in the LKL championship which helps to establish in the third position of the tournament’s tablet even more.
The victory was even sweeter for Klaipėda‘s basketball fans because they took revenge against the players from Pasvalys for the defeat in the first stage in Pasvalys – 83:89.
The match in Klaipėda was nervous – after halftime the advantage of the players of “Neptūnas” was minimal – 47:46. The guests started the third quarter with an 8:0 run and put themselves ahead – 54:47.
The players from Klaipėda for almost half of the quarter could not score any points, but later they recovered and in the middle of the fourth quarter they tipped the score in their favor after a long‑distance shot from Mindaugas Girdžiūnas and Arvydas Šikšnius and Jerai Grant’s shot under the basket – 70:66. This was the crucial turning point of the match which provided the players from Klaipėda confidence in their strength.
“Neptūnas” – “Pieno žvaigždės” – 90: 79 (23:25, 24:21, 11:16, and 32:17)
“Neptūnas”: Daniel Ewing (just in the last quarter scored 14) and Donatas Zavackas – 18 each, Mindaugas Girdžiūnas - 12, Jerai Grant and Martynas Mažeika – 11 each, Arvydas Šikšnius – 9, Vytautas Šarakauskas – 6, Travis Bader – 5; Arnas Butkevičius did not earn any points.
“Pieno žvaigždės”: Ramone Moore – 18, Derrick Low – 13, Žygimantas Skučas – 11 (9 rebounds), and Dovydas Redikas – 10.
Mantas Šernius (Head Coach of “Pieno žvaigždės”): “Neptūnas” is a team that fights until the end. We saw that today. I would like to congratulate the players from Klaipėda with the victory. For three quarters we played as well as “Neptūnas”, yet in the fourth quarter the players, who recently arrived in our team, did not follow our rules – we let a few 3-pointers through which killed us. The victory was very close.”
Dainius Adomaitis (Head Coach of “Neptūnas”): “First of all, I would like to congratulate the players and the fans with the first victory this year. From experience I can say that the match is always going to be difficult after the holidays. The opponents played really well. “Pieno žvaigždės” is one of the most dangerous teams in the league which attacks very well, makes a lot of attacks, and is confident in their strength. In the first half of the match we made too many mistakes on the defense individually and the opponents punished us. In the second half of the match we defended much more aggressively and actively; we were faster. I think that good defense guaranteed the victory. At the start of the third quarter we missed our throws, but one can never panic if you miss easy throws. This is part of the game. However, as seen in this match, one cannot allow the opponent to get 17 rebounds on the offense. For a time we did not have any luck in the offense, but the men are great, they worked on the defense as needed and later on we broke the course of the match on the offense in our favor”.
Already after a few days “Neptūnas” will start the matches in the Eurocup tournament’s “Last 32” stage – the first match of “Neptūnas” in 2016 will take place on January 6th at 19:00 against the local team “Aris” (Greece) in Thessaloniki. On January 13th at 19:00 the players of “Neptūnas” will welcome the team Berlin, “ALBA” (Germany).
The next LKL match “Neptūnas” will play on January 10th (Sunday) at 19:00 in Alytus against the local team “Dzūkija”.
We would like to remind you that a few days ago Klaipėda’s team signed a contract with the 29 year old, 211 cm tall Center player, Trent Plaisted who is an American. This basketball player played with the team Kaunas, “Žalgiris” and became the national champion. The American should join “Neptūnas” on January 5th, but he will not fly with the team to Greece yet.
This is already the tenth victory of “Neptūnas” (8 defeats) in the LKL championship which helps to establish in the third position of the tournament’s tablet even more.
The victory was even sweeter for Klaipėda‘s basketball fans because they took revenge against the players from Pasvalys for the defeat in the first stage in Pasvalys – 83:89.
The match in Klaipėda was nervous – after halftime the advantage of the players of “Neptūnas” was minimal – 47:46. The guests started the third quarter with an 8:0 run and put themselves ahead – 54:47.
The players from Klaipėda for almost half of the quarter could not score any points, but later they recovered and in the middle of the fourth quarter they tipped the score in their favor after a long‑distance shot from Mindaugas Girdžiūnas and Arvydas Šikšnius and Jerai Grant’s shot under the basket – 70:66. This was the crucial turning point of the match which provided the players from Klaipėda confidence in their strength.
“Neptūnas” – “Pieno žvaigždės” – 90: 79 (23:25, 24:21, 11:16, and 32:17)
“Neptūnas”: Daniel Ewing (just in the last quarter scored 14) and Donatas Zavackas – 18 each, Mindaugas Girdžiūnas - 12, Jerai Grant and Martynas Mažeika – 11 each, Arvydas Šikšnius – 9, Vytautas Šarakauskas – 6, Travis Bader – 5; Arnas Butkevičius did not earn any points.
“Pieno žvaigždės”: Ramone Moore – 18, Derrick Low – 13, Žygimantas Skučas – 11 (9 rebounds), and Dovydas Redikas – 10.
Mantas Šernius (Head Coach of “Pieno žvaigždės”): “Neptūnas” is a team that fights until the end. We saw that today. I would like to congratulate the players from Klaipėda with the victory. For three quarters we played as well as “Neptūnas”, yet in the fourth quarter the players, who recently arrived in our team, did not follow our rules – we let a few 3-pointers through which killed us. The victory was very close.”
Dainius Adomaitis (Head Coach of “Neptūnas”): “First of all, I would like to congratulate the players and the fans with the first victory this year. From experience I can say that the match is always going to be difficult after the holidays. The opponents played really well. “Pieno žvaigždės” is one of the most dangerous teams in the league which attacks very well, makes a lot of attacks, and is confident in their strength. In the first half of the match we made too many mistakes on the defense individually and the opponents punished us. In the second half of the match we defended much more aggressively and actively; we were faster. I think that good defense guaranteed the victory. At the start of the third quarter we missed our throws, but one can never panic if you miss easy throws. This is part of the game. However, as seen in this match, one cannot allow the opponent to get 17 rebounds on the offense. For a time we did not have any luck in the offense, but the men are great, they worked on the defense as needed and later on we broke the course of the match on the offense in our favor”.
Already after a few days “Neptūnas” will start the matches in the Eurocup tournament’s “Last 32” stage – the first match of “Neptūnas” in 2016 will take place on January 6th at 19:00 against the local team “Aris” (Greece) in Thessaloniki. On January 13th at 19:00 the players of “Neptūnas” will welcome the team Berlin, “ALBA” (Germany).
The next LKL match “Neptūnas” will play on January 10th (Sunday) at 19:00 in Alytus against the local team “Dzūkija”.
We would like to remind you that a few days ago Klaipėda’s team signed a contract with the 29 year old, 211 cm tall Center player, Trent Plaisted who is an American. This basketball player played with the team Kaunas, “Žalgiris” and became the national champion. The American should join “Neptūnas” on January 5th, but he will not fly with the team to Greece yet.
-3e3f55f65f.png)
