The forward set personal bests in points, assists and PIR as Buducnost grabbed a road victory at Lietkabelis
Career night from 'best passer' Juwan Morgan covers for Buducnost defensive miscues
Spielbericht
3 Lesezeit
Regular Season
Round 5 of 18
Regular Season
group b
Lietkabelis PanevezysLIE
9198
Buducnost VOLI PodgoricaBUD
group b
Overview
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Buducnost VOLI Podgorica suffered through some uncommon defensive struggles on the road in Round 5 of the BKT EuroCup, but it managed to come through at the offensive end thanks to a career night by Juwan Morgan.
The forward tallied 17 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists for a performance index rating of 30 in Buducnost’s important 91-98 road victory over Lietkabelis Panevezys. Morgan set new career highs in points, assists and PIR – surpassing his previous bests of 15, 5 and 28, respectively.
“The start of the fourth quarter, we pressured the ball really well. We got some key stops. You can’t ask for more on the road. You just want to play aggressive and make them make tough shots. We weathered the storm well and came out on top,” Morgan said about the win.
That left Buducnost with a 3-2 record in Group B including two road wins, having also taken down the London Lions away from home in Round 1. Lietkabelis lost its fourth straight game for a 1-4 mark.
The 28-year-old Morgan was all smiles when asked about his stat-line in the post-game interview, especially the 7 assists.
“I really take pride in my passing. I like to tell everybody I am the best passer. When things like that happen I feel really good about them. Because that is a team stat. It can be a good pass but the guys still have to make the shots,” said Morgan, who is now averaging 3.6 assists per game after picking up 1.8 assists last season.
The first 13 minutes were back and forth, with 10 lead changes and 7 ties. Buducnost managed to grab control in the second quarter, extending the lead to 50-59 at the break. That was the club’s most points scored in a first half and third most in a half in EuroCup history.
Lietkabelis twice trimmed the margin to two points in the third frame, with a Morgan buzzer-beater at the end of the end of the stanza making it 72-77.
Buducnost knocked down a couple of big three-pointers in the fourth quarter to extend the lead, eventually going ahead 83-93 with 2 minutes to go to decide the game.
Until now, Buducnost had excelled on defense. But they were forced to win this game at the other end of the court.
Buducnost came into the game allowing just 77.0 points per game, the third-fewest in the competition. The Montenegrin side excelled in guarding the three-point line, giving up just 30.0% through the first four games – also third best in the EuroCup.
But Lietkabelis tallied 91 points while shooting a blistering hot 14 of 26 (53.8%) from long range.
The saving grace was 47.1% on two-pointers for the hosts, who only committed 8 turnovers, while Buducnost shot 65.9% on two pointers.
Buducnost head coach Andrej Zakelj was not pleased with how his team played defensively.
"We played tougher defense in the second half but we still made so many mistakes and allowed Lietkabelis to be in the game. All that was from our mistakes. In the end, this is a tough court to play on. It’s never easy to win here. We won, that is what we wanted from this game. We have to move on,” the coach said.
The win also came thanks to a big night from Juwan Morgan.
