By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
TJ Shorts is having a season to remember and he didn’t want to stop in the quarterfinals. With 24 points and six assists he made things happen as Telekom Baskets Bonn prevailed over SIG Strasbourg 83-77 in Game 3 of the Basketball Champions League quarterfinals.
It was a tense game decided in the last quarter which started with a 13-2 run by the hosts. Strasbourg tried to come back, like they did twice earlier in the game, but this time they simply couldn’t.
Javontae Hawkins added 15 points, while Tyson Ward had 12 and eight rebounds, among them the biggest of the game which practically locked the outcome with 15 seconds left on the offensive side.
The score was 80-77, Ward got fouled he made one of two free throws and the game was over.
“We just trusted the process and things turned out to our favor”, said Ward after the game and added about his crucial play: “Coach told us we had to help the bigs in rebounding, I did that and happened to be there”.
The rebounding irony
“It was a complete catastrophe for us, letting Strasbourg getting nine offensive rebounds in the first quarter, we couldn’t secure our defensive rebounds”, admitted coach Tuomas Iisalo, “but in halftime we talked about demonstrating our identity, which is playing like a team and we took it also personally”.
Playing without Marcus Keene due to injury, Strasbourg got 20 points by Tim Frazier and 17 by DeAndre Lansdowne. Rodion Kurucs also scored 14 points but in the end of the game the French side seemed exhausted and without energy.
For Frazier the 20 points are a BCL personal best.
Still the guests didn’t make things easy for Bonn, entering the last period with a 65-63 lead. However, the partial score in the last ten minutes of action was just 20-12 for the hosts who secured their historic first ever presence in the BCL Final Four.
“It will be a very unique experience for us, we will not be the favorites anymore”, added coach Iisalo for the next big challenge of his club.