Birmingham
Bullets rounded off their Baltic trip on a high note on Thursday night
with their fifth victory in the first round of NEBL Open, defeating Siauliai
80-88 in Lithuania to rebound from their Wednesday
loss in Latvia.
In the first quarter
the British team dominated and took the lead 11-22 after four successful
sharp long shots. With the help of strong efforts from Arvydas Cepulis,
Siauliai were trying to catch up but their guests increased their
lead to 49-37 at half-time.
Siauliai rallied
back strongly at the outset of the third period but Bullets repelled the
home squad quickly and restore to their lead 48-57.
Despite the fact
that Siauliai came back into the game before the last quarter, decisive
scores from Rob Paternostro gave Bullets another win, Ben Walker and Brant
Bailey leading the visitors with 23 points apiece.
Lance Randall, the
Head Coach of the 5-2 Birmingham, was delighted.
"We played much better
in defense than we did last night in Ventspils. It was a battle in Siauliai
and our team was aggressive, while our rivals stayed fairly passive."
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