The visitors tie club record with 18 three-pointers in blowout win
Neptunas's lights-out shooting leads to shocking win at Bahcesehir
Ανάλυση αγώνα
3 Χρόνος Ανάγνωσης
Regular Season
Round 9 of 18
Regular Season
group a
Bahcesehir College IstanbulBKS
85100
Neptunas KlaipedaNEP
group a
Overview
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Neptunas Klaipeda pulled off one of the biggest surprises of the season with a lights-out shooting performance in blowing out Bahcesehir College Istanbul.
Neptunas tied a club record with 18 three-pointers in registering an 85-100 victory at Bahcesehir. The win snapped a two-game losing streak and improved the visitors’ record to 4-5. Bahcesehir was knocked from a share of first place in Group A as it fell to 6-3 with its third loss in the last four games.
Neptunas built a 14-point lead after 10 minutes and it was 19 points in the second quarter. The Lithuanians just kept hitting three-pointers in pushing the lead to 30 points with 7 minutes to go.
Bahcesehir threw everything it had at Neptunas and managed to trim the deficit to 14 points in the closing minutes, but the hole was too large to overcome.
“We are happy with the victory. Like always with us, it was a rollercoaster game. It was a very good first half and we expected that they would come out aggressive in the second half and that’s what happened. We must control the game a little bit better, but we understand with that level of team, we cannot keep a big, big lead of 30 points for a full 40 minutes. I am really happy for our players and organization,” said Neptunas head coach Gediminas Petrauskas.
Neptunas not only evened its 18 three-pointers from Round 2 this season at home against U-BT Cluj-Napoca, but the guests also made 50.0% from long range. And it was a real team effort.
Eight Neptunas players hit from the outside and four buried at least 3 triples - 4 from Mindaugas Girdziunas and Arnas Velicka and 3 each by Zane Waterman and Vitalijus Kozys.
“Neputnas made everything today,” Bahcesehir coach Marko Barac remarked. “We couldn’t cope with Neptunas’ shooting all game long.”
Petrauskas’s men also did a great job controlling the ball with only 2 turnovers in the first half and had only 7 miscues with 7 minutes left in the game. Neptunas committed 6 turnovers over the rest of the game as Bahcesehir made its comeback attempt.
Neptunas had five scorers in double figures, topped by Velicka’s 18 points and 6 assists. Waterman posted 16 points and 8 rebounds and Rihards Lomazs added 15 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists. The team also got a strong contribution from new acquisition Egidijus Mockevicius, who chipped in 8 points and 8 rebounds as a starter.
Bahcesehir could not connect on anything, hitting only 42.6% on two-pointers and 27.6% from long range. The Turkish team came into the game having shot 58.9% on two-pointers - ranked fourth-best in the EuroCup.
Those offensive woes were even more surprising considering Neptunas’s defensive struggles this season. The team ranked 19th in points allowed (95.0 ppg) and 17th in both two-point percentage (57.5%) and three-pointers (38.0%).
Balsa Koprivica stood out with 13 points, 7 rebounds and a personal record 6 blocks. But the coach did not recognize his team.
“They deserved the win completely. We looked today like a team that is out of game shape,” the coach said. “We just couldn’t find the game rhythm from the first to last minute. This was one of our off days. Nothing went right for us today. We need to regroup and get back to the rhythm we had before the national team break.”
