Achille Polonara made one of his best performances in a Zalgiris Kaunas uniform, leading the Lithuanians to an easy home win over ASVEL Villeurbanne (85-67).
The Italian power forward had a season-high 11 points vs the French team, on 4/5 shooting, along with six rebounds, two assists and a PIR of 20. Ignas Brazdeikis and Isaiah Taylor led the way for the winners in scoring with 19 and 15 points, respectively.
Zalgiris recovered from a poor performance in the first quarter (16-22) and outscored Villeurbanne 69-45 the rest of the way to cruise to the victory.
“Our key was playing more physical than them, because they are a very physical team. We played good defense also, because they scored less than 70 points, so it was a very, very good game.
We understood [after the first quarter] that we needed to put different energy on the court, so also from the bench we tried to put more energy and another rhythm to the game. Also the fans supported us a lot, so it’s amazing playing here. Especially when we play at home with these fans, it’s incredible,” Achille Polonara said afterwards.
After protecting its home court, Zalgiris Kaunas improved to 15-13 in the standings and now holds the final playoff spot. On the contrary, ASVEL lost its seventh straight and dropped to 8-20.
