By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
It wasn’t easy at all, Partizan fans were more than loud in Paris, but the home team managed to survive and get the 74-71 win for a 5-3 record.
Nadir Hifi with 17 points and TJ Shorts with 13 points and eight assists once more lead the charge, Yakuba Ouattara had 11 points, while Mikael Jantunen added nine and key shots down the stretch.
“It feels so good, winning at home, in front of this crowd, half of the gym was Partizan fans, so it was great”, said Hifi after the final buzzer.
As Paris coach Tiago Splitter said: “We kept fighting and that was the best of it. The gym was full, they had a lot of people here which is normal in a big city like Paris. They came also to have some vacations, but they are going back with the L”.
Partizan, which dropped to 2-5 and lost for the fourth game in a row, got a big night from Carlik Jones who scored 20 but couldn’t win it in the closing seconds.
Vanja Marinkovic added 16 points, and Tarik Jones had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
A real thriller
Paris had a good 19-10 start, but at the end of the first period, Partizan was trailing by five (21-16) and tied the score at the start of the second at 21 after an 11-2 run.
Paris reacted with their own 9-0 run (30-21) but Partizan had found momentum and closed the gap to four points (33-29) with three minutes left in the first half.
Iffe Lundberg made it an even closer game (35-32) and the halftime score was Paris up by two (37-35).
Tyrique Jones tied the score at 37 for Partizan in the first play of the second half, but Paris again got some distance (42-37). Still, the momentum had changed and Partizan with a 15-4 run got a 52-46 lead, which didn’t stand long.
Paris made it a one-point game (57-56) at the end of the third period and got back up by three (60-57) at the start of the fourth quarter which ended up being a dogfight.
Entering the last two minutes, Carlik Jones gave the lead to Partizan (69-68), Mikael Jantunen put Paris back up (70-69), Tyrique Jones answered back for Partizan (71-70), and with 22 seconds left TJ Shorts went to the free throws line.
Shorts made them both (72-71) and Partizan had one last chance to win the game. Jones tried to get inside, but he almost lost the ball, Jones got it and sent it to Frank Ntilikina who had an open three but missed.
Jantunen made two free throws with one second left (74-71), and Lundberg had one last shot but couldn’t produce a small miracle.
Photo credit: EuroLeague