“The third place doesn’t give us much joy as it has become a standard for us. I’m joking, of course. The players were too tense. Yesterday we lost psychologically, today was similar. But I’m happy to see the players react the way they did. It was a hard lesson, that ended well,” Antanas Sireika, the coach of Siauliai, said.
“I congratulate Siauliai with a hard earned victory. It’s a pity that we let it slip away having led for most of the way. We came short in energy, but anyway, the side that is stronger always wins,” told Nevezis coach Kastytis Kundrotas after the game.
Nevezis had a chance to tie the game with a three pointer, but Mantas Simonavicius, who had made 7 three pointers until that point in the game, airballed the decisive shot with the time running out.
“The shot was a little rushed. I didn’t evaluate the time that was remaining,” Simonavicius criticized himself after the game.
Derrick Low was the top-scorer in his team with 23 points and added 6 assists, Deivydas Gailius collected 21, but committed 5 turnovers. The Latvian center Raitis Grafs ended the game with 13 while Vytautas Sarakauskas had 10 for Siauliai.
“We didn’t play our game yesterday against Zalgiris and the opponents used this. Today we started slow, but we played the end very well. It’s good to end the tournament on a high note,” said Derrick Low, who was voted the best Siauliai player of the tournament.
Nevezis’ Mantas Simonavicius finished with 27 points with 7-of-16 from the three-point line, Rolandas Alijevas scored 14 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists. Egidijus Dimsa contributed with a double-double of 13 points and 13 rebounds and Darius Gvezdauskas added 11.
“Our bench proved to be too short. We fought as hard as we could, gave all we had got. It’s a shame that all we needed is a couple of points,” Mantas Simonavicius said.
Nevezis had the lead after going on an 8:0 run in the third quarter – 50:43. A six point lead was still there at the start of the last period (60:54), but their offense got into a halt. Siauliai used this to full extent and minimized the deficit to a minimum – 59:60.
Siauliai was already up by five points entering the last minute of the game, but a couple of successful Nevezis’ threes and only one of two made free throws by Derrick Low had left the door open for the side from Kedainiai. With just over six seconds on the clock, Nevezis managed to get the ball down the court to sling a desperation three that would have sent the game to overtime, however, Mantas Simonavicius failed to convert.
