Fenerbahce Beko head coach Dimitris Itoudis spoke before Zalgiris Kaunas match

Fenerbahçe Beko continues its preparations for the Zalgiris Kaunas match in the EuroLeague. In the 17th week match of EuroLeague, Lithuanian team Zalgiris Kaunas will be a guest. The fight, which will start tomorrow at 21.00 CET, will be played at Zalgirio Arena.

The Yellow-Navy Blues were the guests of Virtus Segafredo Bologna in the 16th week of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague. Fenerbahçe Beko was defeated 92-88 in the match played on Friday, December 30th. Fenerbahce Beko, who won 10 victories at the end of the 16th games, was the most effective player of the fight with Johnathan Motley with 26 points, 8 rebounds and 30 productivity points.

Fenerbahçe Beko’s last match in the Turkish Insurance Basketball Super League was against Aliağa Petkim Spor on Monday, January 2nd. Yellow and navy blue team won the fight 71-76 and got their 11th victory in their 13th match and continued their leadership. Marko Guduric scored 19 points and Johnathan Motley 15 points for Fenerbahçe Beko.

In addition to Nemanja Bjelica and Tonye Jekiri, who are still undergoing treatment, Tarık Biberovic, who was injured in the last training, will not be able to play in this match.

Opponent: Zalgiris Kaunas

One of the first teams that come to mind in European basketball, Zalgiris started its basketball activities in 1944. Reaching the first Soviet League championship in just three years, Zalgiris repeated this success four more times in the following period.

Zalgiris, who had a golden period with names such as Arvydas Sabonis, Sergejus Jovaisa, Rimas Kurtinaitis and Valdemaras Chomicius and had the chance to win the title in Europe twice, reached Barcelona in the Saporta Cup final in 1984 and Cibona Zagreb with Drazen Petrovic in the EuroLeague final in 1986. lost.

After Lithuania’s declaration of independence, Zalgiris Kaunas has become the country’s strongest voice in basketball, winning nine Lithuanian League titles in a row. In this process, Saulius Stombergas’ 35-point performance in the final won against Adecco Milan stood out in the representative of Kaunas, who took Saporta Cup to his museum in 1998.

Just one year after the Saporta Cup success, Zalgiris achieved a success that surprised the whole of Europe in 1999, this time reaching the EuroLeague title. Led by Jonas Kazlauskas and led by Tyus Edney, Saulius Stombergas, Anthony Bowie, Eurelijus Zukauskas and Jiri Zidek to victory, Zalgiris achieved the most important title in the club’s history.

Zalgiris, who had a good season in EuroLeague in 2004 but lost a critical match against Maccabi in the Top 16, continued to appear in the EuroLeague in the following years.

The new golden era in Zalgiris Kaunas started with the arrival of coach Sarunas Jasikevicius. Zalgiris, who made it to the Playoffs in 2017-18 and passed Olympiakos to the Final Four in this round, managed to beat CSKA Moscow in the third place match with names such as Brandon Davies, Paulius Jankunas and Kevin Pangos, despite losing to Fenerbahçe in the semi-finals.

Zalgiris Kaunas, who managed to enter the Playoffs by winning the last six matches in 2018-2019, could not avoid being eliminated by Fenerbahçe Beko 3-1 in this round. Kaunas representative reached the championship in his own league this season and won this success for the ninth time in a row.

In the 2019-20 season, which was interrupted due to the pandemic, Zalgiris was declared champion in the Lithuanian League and was in the Playoff race with 12 wins and 16 losses in the EuroLeague.

The Northern representative achieved 17 wins in the 2020-21 season, but failed to make the Playoffs. Kaunas reached a happy ending in the Lithuanian League and the Lithuanian Cup.

Kaunas remained in the last place in the EuroLeague in the 2021-22 season with 8 wins and 20 losses, and lost the Lithuanian League final against Rytas.

Latest situation in Zalgiris Kaunas

The staff of Zalgiris Kaunas, coached by Kazys Maksvytis, includes:

Guards: Keenan Evans, Lukas Lekavicius, Mantas Kalnietis, Karolis Lukosiunas, Dovydas Giedraitis, Cashew Kublickas, Liutauras Lelevicius, Tomas Dimsa

Forwards: Ignas Brazdeikis, Edgaras Ulanovas, Arnas Butkevicius, Tyler Cavanaugh, Rolands Smits

Pivots: Kevarrius Hayes, Motiejus Krivas, Laurynas Birutis

Ram: Kazys Maksvytis

Zalgiris Kaunas has won eight of the 16 EuroLeague games this season. The opponent lost 84-82 to Monaco, where he was the last guest on Thursday, December 29. Rolands Smits had 18 points and Keenan Evans had 17 points in this game.

Zalgiris Kaunas is the leader of the Lithuanian League, which has 14 weeks left, with 13 wins. Zalgiris last passed Gargzdai, where he was a guest on December 21, with 71-89. Laurynas Birutis had 15 points, Karolis Lukosiunas had 14 points and Kevarrius Hayes had 12 points for Zalgiris.

Fenerbahce Beko head coach Dimitris Itoudis: “We are catching up with our chemistry again”

Making evaluations before the match, Fenerbahce Beko head coach Dimitris Itoudis said, “We will face an opponent who is in form by winning important matches in the last period. They always play their classic basketball in front of full stands. They have a great hall to play basketball. We are slowly getting in shape and catching up with our chemistry again. We are working hard for this. We know it will be a challenging task ahead, but we will go to Lithuania to achieve it.” said.