Tyus Edney More photos - in team gallery

    Istanbul, TURKEY. "Zalgiris" defeated "Efes Pilsen" Istanbul (Turkey) in the 2nd game of the quarterfinal match in Istanbul 84:70 and qualified to the EuroLeague Final Four to be played on April 20-22 in Munich, Germany. "Zalgiris" will play vs. "Olympiakos" Piraeus (Greece) in the semifinal.

    The beginning of this game wasn't very optimistic for "Zalgiris". "Efes Pilsen" took a 7:0 lead in the first minutes, but after a timeout Lithuanian team came back to score 9 consecutive points - 9:7 for "Zalgiris" after 5 minutes played. The score for the rest of the first half was very close and neither team managed to gain big advantage - it finished 33:32 for "Efes Pilsen". Eurelijus Zukauskas scored 10 points including 3 slam-dunks for "Zalgiris" in the first half.

Eurelijus Zukauskas

    "Efes Pilsen" had a good start of the second half and led by as many as 7 points in the beginning. However, it didn't take much time for "Zalgiris" to find its usual game. Mindaugas Zukauskas dunked, making it 50:50 with 13 minutes to play, and after a while Tyus Edney sank both free throws to put "Zalgiris" ahead for good - 52:50. The rest of the game was a true "Zalgiris show", in which Turkish club players had no big parts. The score changed to 60:55 (with 9:30 minutes left to play), then 64:56 (8:00) and 70:58 (6:30). Eurelijus Zukauskas dunked twice in a row to make it 76:64, and finally hit a free throw to give "Zalgiris" the biggest advantage in this game - 79:64. The Turk players tried to apply the pressure on "Zalgiris" in the final minutes, but it just gave more opportunities for Lithuanian players to score easy baskets. Local spectators at the Istanbul Sports Palace were applauding for "Zalgiris" in last 3 minutes of the game, and everyone could hear loud "boooh" when "Efes Pilsen" was in control of the ball. Darius Maskoliunas made a 3-pointer in the last second to seal the victory for "Zalgiris", which qualified to the EuroLeague Final Four for the first time in franchise history.

    Tyus Edney led "Zalgiris" with 20 points and 10 assists, making clutch plays in the middle of the second half. Eurelijus Zukauskas finished with 15 points, including 5 slam-dunks. Saulius Stombergas had 14 points, and Anthony Bowie collected 12 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists.

    Petar Naumoski scored 28 points and Huseyn Besok added 12 points and 12 rebounds for "Efes Pilsen", which didn't manage to reach the EuroLeague Final Four for the 3rd consecutive season.