

U-BT Cluj-Napoca knew ratiopharm Ulm is one of the most dangerous three-point shooting teams in the BKT EuroCup and it looked like Cluj was going to be in for a long night. But the Romanian champs' shut down the Ulm shooters for the second time this season and earned a big victory in its fight for a bye in the playoffs.
Ulm was held to just 8 made three-pointers and Cluj manufactured the third-biggest comeback to win by a road team this decade, rallying from 18 points down for an 81-85 victory and an 11-4 record in Group B - the same as second-place Dreamland Gran Canaria.
Ulm came into the game averaging a EuroCup-high 10.8 made three-pointers per game and ranked fifth in three-point shooting at 37.4%.
The home side started out on fire with 7 three-pointers in the first 14 minutes - from 14 attempts. That was the end of the hot shooting night for Ulm though.
Ulm missed its final 2 three-point attempts in the second quarter and still led 51-36.
“I told my players at halftime we can play whatever strategy we want to defensively but it doesn’t matter if we don’t do it with the right intensity and the right focus. Each player needed to play harder and put in more effort in order to win this game,” Cluj coach Mihai Silvansan said.
And that is exactly what happened.
Ulm missed its first 7 three-pointers of the third quarter and only Thomas Klepeisz knocked down a triple in the closing seconds of the period. The hosts failed to convert on their final 7 three-pointers in the last 10 minutes, finishing with 8-of-31 shooting (25.8%). Ulm connected on just one of its last 17 three-pointers.
It was actually the second time that Cluj shut down Ulm’s long-range attack.
In Round 6 in Romania, Ulm made just 8 of 29 three-pointers (27.6%) and Cluj prevailed 86-75.