By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
With five players scoring in double figures, Partizan Belgrade beat Paris Basketball 92 – 86 at home to improve to 12-11 while getting the tiebreaker over the French team.
Carlik Jones led a balanced Partizan offensive effort with 17 points and five assists.
Isaac Bonga registered a EuroLeague career-high 16 points along with seven rebounds and four assists while Sterling Brown had 15 points plus six boards. Brandon Davies scored 13 and Iffe Lundberg posted 11 points plus seven assists.
“That’s a good team,” Jones said. “That’s a fast-paced team. But we are a tough team too. We play fast. We defend. The fans were great tonight. It was just an incredible win for us.”
TJ Shorts (19 points) and Tyson Ward (14 points, four rebounds) stood out from a Paris side that dropped to 13-9, having played one game less.
“I believe we played a really good game against an excellent team,” Partizan coach Zeljko Obradovic said after his team’s third straight win. “Everything we talked before the game, it’s exactly how they played. Very fast with 3-point shots and a lot of energy. We found a way to match up this energy and win the game.”
Hot start for Paris, hot finish for Partizan
The guests had a hot start, going up 34 – 23 nine minutes into the game until Partizan responded strongly and led 54 – 49 at halftime.
Paris recovered the lead, but that was short-lived.
With the score tied at 69 – 69, Partizan made a 12-3 run, capped by a triple off the glass by Aleksej Pokusevski, who had just entered the game.
The Serbian forward drained another one for the 86 – 79 with 3:39 and his squad remained beyond a striking distance for the remainder of the game.
” Tough one. My guys fought until the end,” Paris coach Tiago Splitter said. “Sometimes you don’t make shots and they make shots than you. There are things to improve and get better. Overall, I think that at least the effort was there.”