By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Norris Cole with 20 points and Goga Bitatze with 16 and seven rebounds led the charge once more for Buducnost which got the 75-70 win over Gran Canaria.
The game was close from wire to wire, with Buducnost getting a three-point lead after the first period (27-24), then trailing by two at halftime (38-36) and entering the last period with a four-point advantage (61-57).
With five minutes left, Gran Canaria made it a three-point game (66-63) after two made free throws by Ondrej Balvin, who missed the chance on his next trip to the charity stripe to cut the lead to one point.
Cole made a crucial bucket (68-63), Earl Clark added a three (71-63) and the game was over. Clark scored in total 10 points and Edwin Jackson did the same for the winning side.
Sim-Sander Vene with 16 points was the top scorer of Gran Canaria, however, the Spaniards couldn’t close the game the right way, while the hosts had a 9-4 run during the last five minutes before the final shot of the game, a three by Marcus Eriksson that didn’t change much.
“We completely changed the game on defense in the second half“, said Buducnost’s coach Jasmin Repesa. “It is easy to see in the statistics; they only made four three-point shots in the second half and eight in the first half. We finished the game winning on rebounds, which is very, very important. For sure, some offensive situations were supposed to be better moving the ball, but definitely, it is an extremely important win against a really good team who plays tough for 40 minutes at both ends of the court. I can only congratulate my players, nothing else. All of our players gave something. This is a team sport and when we are playing together and are connected on defense, we are doing what we have to do. Offensively, we have a lot of talent – Bitadze, Norris (Cole), Jackson, it doesn’t matter who – but it is important that we play defense at the level that we want.”
The two teams are now tied with a 6-14 record in the 14th position of the standings and Gran Canaria has the tiebreaker.
Photo credit: EuroLeague