By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Partizan played with fire but didn’t get burned thanks to two free throws, an offensive rebound, and a big bucket by Nemanja Danguvic, plus a steal by Zach Leday and a charge won by Aleksa Avramovic.
All this happened in the last 20 seconds which started with Partizan trailing by three (73-70) and ultimately getting the 75-73 win over Slask Wroclaw.
Gregor Glas with 18 points was the leading scorer of the Serbian side, while Uros Trifunovic added 12 points. Kerem Kanter, younger brother of Enes Kanter, with 21 points had a big night for Slask but it was not enough.
Partizan missed injured Kevin Punter, Glas was also injured during the game, and as coach Zeliko Obradovic admitted: “It was a miracle the way we won the game”.
In the other game of the night, Hamburg Towers got the big 100-82 win over Lokomotiv Kuban. Jaylon Brown with 21 points was the top scorer for the winning side and Caleb Homesley also scored 20.
Erick McCallum tried to save the day by himself, scoring 27 points for Loko, but couldn’t do much in the third quarter, when the hosts outscored the Russian side by 19 (29-10).
The other three games of the group were played on Tuesday with Turk Telekom Ankara getting the 76-70 road win over Trento, Andorra edging feisty Lietkabelis Panevezys 81-76, and Joventut Badalona having an easy night against Boulogne (86-63).
| Group A | W | L | PTS+ | PTS- | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Partizan NIS Belgrade | 6 | 1 | 567 | 516 | 51 |
| 2. Joventut Badalona | 5 | 2 | 555 | 477 | 78 |
| 3. Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar | 5 | 2 | 639 | 602 | 37 |
| 4. MoraBanc Andorra | 5 | 2 | 584 | 558 | 26 |
| 5. Turk Telekom Ankara | 4 | 3 | 527 | 552 | -25 |
| 6. Lietkabelis Panevezys | 3 | 4 | 567 | 547 | 20 |
| 7. Boulogne Metropolitans 92 | 3 | 4 | 568 | 594 | -26 |
| 8. Hamburg Towers | 2 | 5 | 599 | 635 | -36 |
| 9. Slask Wroclaw | 1 | 6 | 512 | 558 | -46 |
| 10. Dolomiti Energia Trento | 1 | 6 | 504 | 583 | -79 |