Bourg's second-half defense gave it first place in Group A

Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse bounced back from its first loss of the season to ace a Round 6 battle for first place in Group A on Tuesday despite playing on the road and trailing by double digits in the first half.

The resulting 80-85 comeback triumph on Joventut Badalona's court gave Bourg a 3-1 away mark, with its 5-1 overall record making it Group A's exclusive leader even before the rest of the teams play on Wednesday.

Bourg had already beaten Umana Reyer Venice (73-79) in Round 1 and Germani Brescia (69-71) in Round 4, but coming to Spain to face Badalona was a tough challenge. Bourg had been unable to defeat Joventut in two previous tries in 2020.

"It's important to take another one on the road," forward James Palmer, who led Bourg's effort with 23 points, said. "We are not just a home team, we want to compete everywhere."

Nonetheless, the outcome seemed to have been leaning the other way in the first half, when Joventut built a 40-29 advantage midway through the second quarter that Bourg battled to trim to 48-45 at halftime. At that point, Joventut had already dished 15 assists amid stellar shooting: 11-for-15 on two-pointers (73%) and 6-for-11 from deep (54%).

"In the beginning of the game we made a lot of mistakes," Bourg head coach Frederic Fauthoux said. "We left a lot of spacing for Badalona's offense, especially [Guillem] Vives and [Andres] Feliz. In the second half, we did a better job, especially against them, so they could not create that spacing. We were very focused on that."

As a result, Bourg reduced Joventut's offensive production, limiting the hosts' ball circulation and shooting accuracy. In the final quarter, Joventut was held to just 3 assists while making no three-pointers from 5 attempts and scoring just 14 points.

"We all played defense in the second half, and that led us to win," Palmer concluded. "It was a great team win."