Cluj's leaders stepped up to inspire a come-from-behind victory, combining for a historic performance
Cluj's Dusan Miletic, Fatts Russell make history against Slask
Game Report
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 12 of 18
Regular Season
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U-BT Cluj-NapocaUBT
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Slask WroclawWKS
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Overview
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U-BT Cluj-Napoca had to battle until the final second to beat Slask Wroclaw 94-92 at home in Round 12. Slask led most of the way, but Cluj somehow found a way to win it down the stretch. The hosts were missing two of their leaders, Jeffery Taylor and Mitchell Creek, due to injury. Luckily for head coach Mihai Silvasan, Fatts Russell and Dusan Miletic joined forces for a historic performance.
It wasn't easy, though. Slask led 70-74 at the end of the third quarter and boosted its margin to 82-88 with less than 4 minutes remaining on a three-pointer by Issuf Sanon. That's when Russell and Miletic stepped up to make the difference in the game.
First Miletic found Russell for a floater. After a defensive stop, Miletic grabbed a defensive rebound, which allowed Russell to tie the game on the next possession, 88-88, with a wild four-point play. Russell kept pacing Cluj with a pair of free throws and a put-back basket that tied the game again, 92-92, with 13.7 seconds remaining. Slask called timeout and this is when Coach Silvasan decided to make a critical move.
Slask inbounded the ball and Cluj decided to foul on Noah Kirkwood, who was 3 of 5 from the free throw line and had missed a pair with over 4 minutes remaining. The move paid off, as Kirkwood missed both attempts with 12.3 seconds left. Cluj put the ball in Russell's hands and he found a direct way to the basket, but missed a relatively easy layup. Miletic, his partner in crime, fixed that mistake with the go-ahead put-back slam with 1.5 seconds remaining. Slask had a final chance to win the game, but Kuba Niziol missed a three-point shot at the buzzer.
Russell and Miletic made history by becoming just the sixth pair of teammates to get PIRs of 35 or higher in a EuroCup game. Russell finished the game with 30 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists, plus 11 fouls drawn for a PIR of 37. Dusan Miletic posted a double-double of 19 points and 14 rebounds, adding 5 assists and 6 fouls drawn for a PIR of 35.
The last two teammates to post PIRs of 35 or higher were Errick McCollum (39) and Johnathan Motley (36) of Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar in a 97-95 home win over Dolomiti Energia Trento on December 8, 2021. The list also includes Trajan Langdon and Lazaros Papadopoulos of Dynamo Moscow, Maciej Lampe and Nate Wolters of Besiktas Istanbul, Goran Nikolic and Bobby Brown of ALBA Berlin in the instant-classic quintuple-overtime win against Bosna Sarajevo, and the first two teammates to do it, Priest Lauderdale (55) and Todor Stoykov (45), who combined for a PIR of 100 to lead Lukoil Academic to a triple-overtime 116-115 win over Zagreb on November 11, 2003.
"It was not our best game scoring-wise, but we showed how tough we were to come out with the win at the end," Russell said. "Our fans brought a lot of energy towards the end of the game and that kind of helped us get over the edge. Thank you to the fans, we are looking forward to keeping that energy up in the next games."
Cluj plays four of its next five games on the road, visiting Umana Reyer Venice on January 7. That day, Slask hosts Hapoel Midtown Jerusalem.
