Zalgiris Kaunas refused to let its EuroLeague season end quietly on Wednesday night. Backed by a roaring crowd inside Zalgirio Arena, the Lithuanian club stormed back in the fourth quarter to defeat Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul 81-78 and cut the playoff series deficit to 2-1.
The defending EuroLeague champions controlled long stretches of Game 3 and led by seven at halftime, but the final minutes belonged entirely to Zalgiris. Tomas Masiulis’s team held Fenerbahce to 16 fourth-quarter points and flipped the game after taking a 74-72 lead late in regulation.
Azuolas Tubelis delivered the best playoff performance of his career when his team needed it most. The forward finished with 26 points and six rebounds while shooting 9-for-14 from the field and 3-for-4 from beyond the arc, repeatedly punishing Fenerbahce’s smaller lineups inside and outside the paint.
The momentum shift started before halftime when Sylvain Francisco energized the building with a powerful dunk during a Zalgiris rally. Francisco still struggled with efficiency, finishing with 12 points on 4-of-15 shooting, but he impacted the game in other ways with eight assists and seven rebounds.
Nigel Williams-Goss added 18 points and five assists, while Moses Wright contributed 11 points and seven rebounds as Zalgiris won the rebounding battle 36-31 and finished with fewer turnovers than the visitors.
The defensive execution in the final quarter changed the game. Fenerbahce opened the night shooting 3-of-5 from three-point range but finished just 7-of-19 overall from deep as Zalgiris tightened its perimeter coverage. Tarik Biberovic, one of the Turkish club’s primary scoring threats, was limited to 10 points on only seven shot attempts and failed to record a rebound.
Wade Baldwin led Fenerbahce with 16 points, while Talen Horton-Tucker scored 15 and Devon Hall added 14. But the visitors struggled to regain control once the atmosphere inside the arena reached its peak during the closing stretch.
The result keeps alive a series that appeared close to slipping away from Zalgiris after the opening two games. The fifth-seeded Lithuanian side now heads into Friday’s Game 4 with a chance to level the series on its home floor and force a decisive Game 5 in Istanbul against the fourth-seeded reigning champions.
