Partizan NIS Belgrade showed it means business by stopping the recent run of Hamburg Towers with a historic 102-77 win at home in Group A. Partizan set a club record for the most points in a half in surging to an 8-2 mark, including five wins in the last six games. Mathias Lessort led the way with 22 points and 5 steals for Partizan, which improved to 6-0 at home.
Partizan drops 100 points on Hamburg for second time, 102-77
Zach LeDay chipped in 18 points and 8 rebounds while Kevin Punter scored 15 points and Balsa Koprivica added 13 points. EuroCup debutant Hamburg saw its three-game winning streak come to a close to fall to 4-6. Robin Christen scored a career-high 20 points for the German side while Caleb Homesley had 14 points and Ray McCallum finished with 11 points.
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Dallas Moore started the scoring for the hosts, who were ahead 6-0 before Homesley hit a three-pointer for Hamburg. A big LeDay dunk made it 11-3 and forced a Hamburg timeout. Maik Kotsar answered but Partizan did not slow down at all with Lessort scoring 7 points and Rodions Kurucs hitting from deep in a 16-3 run to lead 27-8. McCallum and Christen hit triples for Hamburg, but Punter added 4 points at the other end and Partizan led 34-14 after 10 minutes.
Christen started the second quarter with 2 free throws and he and Lukas Meisner added three-pointers for Hamburg with Homesley able to trim the gap to 43-28. Partizan just kept pouring it on: Aleksa Avramovic made a three-pointer, Leday converted an and-one, Lessort scored 4 points and LeDay added 2 three-pointers and the hosts led 65-41 at the break.
Lessort scored the first 5 points of the second half to make sure that Hamburg didn’t start well for a 70-41 advantage. Max DiLeo made a three-pointer for the visitors, but LeDay countered with a three-point play and Punter drained a triple as the cushion swelled to 80-46. Kurucs pushed the gap to 83-48 and Partizan led 85-53 after 30 minutes.
Kurucs began the final frame with a three-pointer for the hosts, but Partizan took the foot off the gas. Hamburg tried to make the final result more respectable with Christen burying 2 three-pointers and getting a put-back to make it 90-62. Hamburg added 2 more triples and Partizan boss Zeljko Obradovic called a timeout with his team up 92-68 with less than 4 minutes remaining. By then the game had long been decided.