«Zalgiris» Kaunas, Lithuania vs. «Budivelnik» Kiev, Ukraine

The Lithuanian Zalgiris gained home victory over the Ukrainian Budivelnik - 74:58.

Who would have thought before the start of the season that in the match Zalgiris - Budivelnik will meet seventh and eighth teams of Group A. But the status of a favorite, which belongs to Lithuanian club, staggered at the end of the last VTB United League championship when Kaunas players sensationally lost at home to Azovmash and didn’t get to the Final four. And this season the greens got off on the wrong foot from the very beginning.

Under the direction of Alexandar Trifunovic Zalgiris again began to play better. The Lithuanian club at the last moment got into Top 16 of Euroleague. And in VTB United League the prospects of the team are not so bad: the Lithuanian club has to win two games - and then they will be able to fight on equal terms with other teams for playoffs.

Zalgiris managed to cope with the first part of this task beating Budivelnik. Already after the first quarter the scoreboard of Zalgiris Arena showed - 25:9 in favor of the hosts. But the Ukrainian club in the best traditions of VTB United League continued to struggle in the following 10-minute segment and gained «+3» point advantage. Budivelnik still failed to win this fight.

As a result, the Lithuanian club celebrated its second home (and third in total) victory - 74:58. The most productive in the home team were Mantas Kalnietis - 12 points, Milovan Rakovic - 11 and Paulius Jankunas - 10. In Budivelnik top three players finished with exactly the same results: 12, 11 and 10 points scored Artsiom Parakhouskis, Rolandas Alijevas and Zach Morley respectively.