Masiulis’s plan worked to perfection, as Bryant was a non-factor for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, Moses Wright provided the spark on the other end with back-to-back dunks in the third, as a 2-13 run allowed the visitors to establish a double-digit lead.
Nigel Williams-Goss made some clutch buckets, netting 10 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter. Following his poorest outing of the season in the game against Panathinaikos, Sylvain Francisco was instrumental with 8 assists, while Azuolas Tubelis set the tone by grabbing a team-high 8 rebounds.
In fact, Zalgiris outrebounded Hapoel 21-40, forcing head coach Dimitris Itoudis to admit that the visitors “outhustled” his team. Yet according to Williams-Goss, his team’s consistency is what led to the 80-93 triumph.
“Just playing for 40 minutes,” he told EuroLeague TV. “There’s been a lot of times this year where we played really well for 20 minutes, 25 minutes and then we left 15 minutes to get away. So, our challenge was putting those full 40 minutes together and we did that against a really good team today. So I’m super proud of the win.”
Having celebrated its fourth road victory this term, Zalgiris is scheduled to open the upcoming double-round week with a game away at Virtus Bologna. And with its confidence sky-high after a commanding display in Tel Aviv, Masiulis’s players will look to open 2026 with another bang.