Published: June 9, 2018

Brandon Davies rocked the rim with dunk after dunk as Zalgiris Kaunas knocked off Lietuvos Rytas, 96-83, to take game 1 of the LKL championship.

The former BYU big man had a monstrous performance with 21 points on 8-for-13 shooting from the floor and 5-for-7 from the foul line. He also recorded a game-high seven rebounds (three on the offensive end), handed out three assists and recorded a block while playing 21:09.

Davies got his offense going early as he scored the first five points of the game for Zalgiris. He connected on a foul line jumper to open the scoring, followed by a huge one-hand jam two possessions later. After hitting 1 of 2 free throws to tie the game at five, Davies created a wide open look for Kevin Pangos to drill a three thanks to a perfectly executed screen. Davies then showed off his passing ability as he delivered a high post pass to the wing for an open shot from beyond the arc as Zalgiris took a 11-10 lead. He also secured two defensive rebounds before taking a seat for the remainder of the quarter.

After an extended break, Davies went back to work in the second as he got to the foul line and converted on the second of two free-throws. He followed that up with difficult lay-up after splitting defenders off the dribble and finishing with some soft touch off the window. He then showed off some defensive skills as he recovered from a pick-and-roll to block a shot and keep Kaunas within a basket.

As strong as his play was in the first half, Davies was even better in the second as Zalgiris came home with the win.

Davies opened up the third quarter with a huge dunk after collecting an offensive board on his own miss. He added another massive finish three possessions later as he put the ball on the floor from just outside the foul line and got to the rim for a two-handed flush. He then converted on a pair of free throws before capping off his personal nine-point run for Zalgiris with an old-fashioned 3-point play.

Davies continued his strong third-quarter play as he found Arturas Milaknis for an open 3-ball before getting a short rest.

The fourth quarter started the same way as the third for Davies who hit the offensive glass and finished through three defenders for the tough putback. He closed out his scoring for the night on the next possession when he hammered home a two-hand jam on an exquisite lob pass from Aaron White.

The Real SPGHighlights YouTube channel shared video of the massive performance from the former Cougar.

Through seven Lithuanian League playoff games, Davies is averaging 12.3 points on 64.1 percent shooting with 4.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists.

Davies and Zalgiris will be back on the floor on Monday for game 2 of the best-of-seven championship series.

Photo credit: By Ksnow (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons