


Germani Brescia kept alive its hopes of finishing in Group A’s top four and gaining home-court advantage in the 7DAYS EuroCup playoffs after clawing out a hard-fought 84-82 home win over Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana on Tuesday. Brescia improved to 8-9 ahead of its final regular season game at Frutti Extra Bursaspor next week while Cedevita, which had already lost all hope of advancing into the playoffs, slipped to 3-14 and remained rooted to the bottom of its group.
Kenny Gabriel led Brescia’s effort with 13 points and 9 rebounds, including a clutch three-pointer late in the game which forced battling Cedevita into submission. John Petrucelli and Tai Odiase chipped in with 12 points each for the hosts, while CJ Massinburg and Amadeo Della Valle added 11 apiece. Cedevita guard Josh Adams paced all scorers with 19 points and Yogi Ferrel netted 18 but netted only 1 of 7 shots from three-point range, while Rok Radovic scored 11 for the visitors.
Brescia dominated the opening half thanks to strong defense and sound three-point shooting, having nailed 6 of 8 shots from beyond the arc while Cedevita only made 4 of 16. Ferrell kept the visiting team afloat with 9 points in the first quarter but fizzed out in the second, while a balanced workload propelled Brescia at the other as 10 of their players scored in the opening 20 minutes.
The home team’s selfless approach produced 15 assists while the visitors only had 6 in the first half, but Cedevita looked a different side after the break. The visitors chased and hustled in defense, engineering a barrage of steals and fast breaks which slashed the 52-36 halftime deficit to just 61-55 in the closing stages of the third quarter, before a late 8-2 Brescia streak restored a double-digit lead for the home side (69-57) ahead of the final 10 minutes.
Drama was on the cards after Josh Adams hit a tough three-pointer and Cedevita closed to just 2 points (71-69) before Aleksej Nikolic replied at the other end with Brescia’s first field goal of the fourth quarter, midway through the period. With Cedevita breathing down the hosts’ necks, Gabriel buried a long three to make it 83-75 late in the game and although the visitors battled hard with Adams hitting another audacious triple with 12.3 seconds left, they ran out of time to turn the match on its head.