By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Looking like a scoring battle between Rob Gray and Matt Mitchell, Paul Lacombe igniting a 16-0 clutch sprint all but secured the win, 79-75, for SIG Strasbourg at Tofas Bursa Tuesday.
Lacombe, 32, was the enforcer pouring nine of the 16 points turning a game-high 12-point deficit into a four-point advantage with 2:41 left in the Basketball Champions League Regular Season Group A Gameday 4 contest. With four unanswered points, the hosts knotted it up, 73-73, but Marcus Keene hit the winning bucket and added four free throws to seal the win.
Keene, 27, ended up with 15 points in Tofas Nilufer Spor Salonu. Lacombe had 13 points. Mitchell packed 25 points but was held to only three in the last ten minutes. Sidelined since late October, Stan Okoye did not suit up. Injured power forward Ike Udanoh was out as well.
Following the hiring of Luca Banchi as the new head coach during the international break, Strasbourg rallied past Tofas. Both the Italian mastermind and recent addition to the squad Lacombe are familiar with the Champions League and returned with a bang.
The lasting original of the BCL was in direct danger of dropping four straight games on the road for the first time throughout the campaigns in FIBA’s top European club continental competition. Instead went up to 3-1 in the four-team group, on the heels of jumping to 2-7 in France’s Betclic Elite LNB Pro A in Banchi’s debut Saturday.
On the opposite end, the team coached by Dimitris Priftis, 4-3 in Turkey’s BSL, was forced down to 1-3 in the BCL group. Gray drawing a game-high 27 points was not enough to get the job done, despite the hosts leading for nearly 30 minutes.
Postgame press conference:
Photo Credit: Basketball Champions League