Valančiūnas Breaks Žalgiris Record with 20 Rebounds

Lithuanian center Jonas Valančiūnas collected 20 rebounds in Thursday's 25-minute, 10-second game away to Olimpia Milano. With this performance, he set the EuroLeague single-game rebounding record for Žalgiris, surpassing the 19 rebounds Tanoka Beard recorded in the 2004/05 season. Žalgiris won the match 86-83.

Valančiūnas's 16 rebounds came on the defensive glass and 4 on the offensive glass. Žalgiris won the rebounding battle 46-28. The center made 5 of 9 shots from the field and 7 of 10 free throws. He also added 17 points, 2 assists, 2 steals and 1 block, finishing with a performance index rating of 36.

Žalgiris entered the fourth quarter with an 11-point lead. Although Milano scored 31 points in the final period, the team kept its advantage and secured the win. Valančiūnas stressed that teammates supporting each other mattered more than the statistics, pointing in particular to how they helped one another on defense.

The EuroLeague single-game rebounding record is still 24, held by Antonis Fotsis. He reached that total on March 21, 2007, playing for Dynamo Moscow in a win over Benetton Treviso that went to overtime.