By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The duo of Tyson Ward and Nadir Hifi made things happen for Paris in Berlin on the road for a 92-83 win. Hifi had 25 points on 7/19 threes and Ward added 23 on 6/12 from the long-range.
Their big shots decided the game in the closing seconds while Mikael Jantunen added 14 points, and TJ Shorts 11 points and nine assists.
ALBA put on a great fight and got 18 points from Tim Schneider and 16 by Justin Bean but in the end, they couldn’t complete the game the right way.
On the other side, Paris with 20/52 threes registered a new EuroLeague record on three-pointers attempted.
“ALBA’s strategy was to minimize TJ Shorts and let the other guys play the game with the box-and-one. In the first half, it worked. We were not hitting the shots, the open threes they were letting us shoot,” Paris head coach Tiago Splitter explained.
“They let us shoot the open threes. We missed a lot. We came back in the second half and shot with confidence to get the win. We can be proud of ourselves,” added Hifi.
Thanks to this result, Paris got a 3-3 record in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Standings, while ALBA remains at the bottom with 1-5.
Paris in the end
ALBA had a great start in the game leading by 10 after the first half (26-16). The Germans stretched their advantage to 14 points (40-26) and that proved to be the alarm bell for Paris.
The guests finished the first half with an 11-4 partial score (44-37) and with a 13-5 run got the 50-49 lead thanks to a team effort.
Ultimately the third period proved to be the turning point. Paris got things under control, got a five-point cushion (60-55), and entered the last quarter up by two points (65-63).
With Ward taking action, Paris built a 79-71 lead but it was not enough. ALBA didn’t back down and tied it all at 79 thanks to a three by Schneider, a goal foul by Trevion Williams, and a shot by Bean.
It was obvious that the game would be decided on details and those details were all Paris. With three minutes left, Hifi stole the ball and made a three to give the lead to Paris (86-83), one minute later after one more steal by Jantunen, Ward made one more three (89-83) and ALBA couldn’t score at crunch time.
Koumadje suspended
ALBA Berlin didn’t have available for the game Khalifa Koumadje who is suspended after failing an antidoping test in the German Cup. As ALBA German manager Marco Baldi said: “We have become aware of allegations made against Khalifa. We take these allegations very seriously. Khalifa has been suspended until these allegations have been fully clarified. We will inform you about further developments at the appropriate time.”
Yanni Wetzell is also expected to be out for two weeks due to thumb, injurt and Jonas Mattisseck had back problems.
Photo credit: EuroLeague