Zalgiris Kaunas 74-67 Barça: Victory eludes

Barça's 2024/25 Euroleague season is under way with a defeat in Lithuania 74-67 against Zalgiris Kaunas despite an excellent second half from Joan Peñarroya's team. Laprovittola with 12 points and Parker and Punter with 11 were the top scorers in the game for the blaugranes. 

Not quite there yet 

A debut against Zalgiris Kaunas is not the easiest way to start a Euroleague campaign and Barça were up against it early with the home side taking a 21-14 lead at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter the Lithuanians continued to dominate with Brazdeikis scoring 10 points to help his side to a 43-31 lead at the break.

Second half improvement 

Barça scored six unanswered points at the start of the second half and the blaugranes' defence started to take control. Towards the end of the third quarter Peñarroya's team levelled things up at 48-48 with the game still in the balance. However, Zalgiris opened up a lead in the fourth quarter of almost eight points at one stage before Barça brought it back to 69-65. A three pointer from Zalgiris' Francisco sent the balance in favour of the home side and the Lithuanians held on for a 74-67 win. 

MATCH STATS 

ZALGIRIS, 74
BARÇA, 67

Zalgiris: Wallace (6), Giedraitis (7), Brazdeikis (17), Butkevicius (6) and Birutis (3) - starting five - Francisco (19), Lekavicius (-), Smailagic (-), Mitchell (6), Dunston (-), Sirvydis (8), Ulanovas (2).

Barça:  Punter (11), Satoransky (2), Anderson (4), Parker (11) and Willy (8) - starting five - Vesely (7), Metu (7), Nuñez (-), Laprovittola (12), Abrines (5).