Buducnost VOLI Podgorica advanced to 5-2, good enough for first place in Group B, on Wednesday night, but it had to rely on a couple of sizeable runs in its 73-58 win over Dolomiti Energia Trento.

Trento was feeling confident after picking up its first win of the season last week, as it got off to a quick start and led for the entire duration of the first quarter. After 10 minutes, it was up 14-18. Yet, two points apiece from Trae Bell-Haynes and Aleksandar Lazic to close the quarter was followed by a strong run by Buducnost in the second quarter.

 

During a period of six minutes and 20 seconds to open the second quarter, Buducnost leaned on Marko Jagodic-Kuridza and Petar Popovic as the team went on a 23-4 run. Including the four points to end the first 10 minutes, it was a 27-4 spell of the game for the hosts, which saw it open a 37-22 lead with 3:40 minutes remaining before halftime.

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Then, in the fourth quarter and with Trento looking to mount a comeback, Buducnost made sure of the victory by putting together a 13-2 run in the final 4:57 minutes. Igor Drobnjak was particularly influential, getting the shooter's role for a two-pointer, which made it 62-56. Later, he confirmed the win with back-to-back three-pointers for the last two scores of the game, as it finished 73-58. These two runs in the game were ultimately pivotal in Buducnost coming away with the win.

Buducnost leaned on a couple of big runs to down Trento

Buducnost VOLI Podgorica v Dolomiti Energia Trento (2022-12-07T18:30:00.000Z)

### Paris Basketball head coach Will Weaver:

"We were short-handed on the road, third game in five days. I am really proud of our group and this is probably the most beautiful basketball gym that I have ever played in, so I am happy that I get to remember it with a happy memory.

"I am incredibly proud of our team for playing simple together basketball. That is something that we talked about over the last week, needing to do more of, and it is not easy. These guys had the third game in five days with significant travel in between, but our group knows that if they play up to their potential, we are difficult to beat and so I am very proud of them, particularly, because of how much respect I have for this program, Coach Urlep, the tradition of this place. It was a real pleasure to compete against this team, and EuroCup is always fun but playing on the road and getting the experience to play in the most beautiful basketball gym I have seen in my entire life is really special."

### Slask Wroclaw head coach Andrej Urlep:

"I think that only in the fourth quarter we showed the energy that we have to show for 40 minutes. Unfortunately for us, we didn't do that in the first half, we didn't do in the third quarter. The fourth quarter was great: again, when we have a chance to come back, we miss easy layups, that's why we were not able to cut the lead even more. But the way that we played the fourth quarter, that's the energy that we have to get on the court every game.

"I have to congratulate Paris. They played smart and used what we got them. Unfortunately for us, we wanted to win this game but we were not able to stand the pressure. It is unbelievable how bad we were shooting free throws, how bad we were shooting for three points, and we showed real basketball only in the fourth quarter."

### Paris Basketball guard Kyle Allman:

"It always feels good to get a win on the road. We fought a long way to get here. Just came off two losses so it was great to bounce back."

Coach Weaver, Paris: 'This is probably the most beautiful gym I've played in'

Slask Wroclaw v Paris Basketball (2022-12-07T19:00:00.000Z)

Paris Basketball grabbed its third consecutive victory in Group B by topping Slask Wroclaw 69-77 at Centennial Hall on Wednesday. In doing so, Paris improved to 5-2 in the standings and became the first team to win four road games this season.

Kyle Allman led the winners with 26 points and 6 assists. Amar Gegic added 17 points, Axel Toupane scored 11 and Ismael Kamagate 10 for Paris. Toupane added 11 rebounds for a double-double. Ivan Ramljak had 12 points for Slask, which dropped to 0-7 and remained the only winless team in the competition. Lukasz Kolenda, Aleksander Dziewa and Conor Morgan each added 10 for the hosts.

Kamagate had 4 points in a 0-7 opening run. Slask found a go-to guy in Dziewa, who brought the hosts within 10-11. Kamagate got help from Gegic and Aamir Simms to boost Paris's lead to 16-24 after 10 minutes. Gegic capped a 1-12 run with a bomb from downtown that broke the game open, 17-33, early in the second quarter. Ramljak and Kodi Justice got Slask closer, 33-45, at halftime.

Morgan struck from downtown to give Slask hope, 38-45, soon after the break. Paris found a go-to guy in Allman, who buried 3 three-pointers, and got help from Gagic and Simms to make it 52-70 after 30 minutes. Justin Bibbs and Kolenda brought Slask within 65-72 with over 3 minutes left but Allman stepped up again to make sure Paris captured a well-deserved win.

Paris remains perfect on the road with 69-77 win at Slask

### Vladimir Jovanovic, Buducnost VOLI Podgorica head coach

"The second half was like a copy and paste of the first. We started soft, with low energy, without \[executing on\] defense. They scored almost 10 points in a row in one moment, and after that we had to find players from the bench who will bring energy on the court."

### Marko Jagodic-Kuridza, Buducnost VOLI Podgorica forward

"It's very important for us to win this game because we had a bad loss a couple of days ago \[in the ABA League against Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade\]. We had to show ourselves and step up and win when it is not easy to win, because we have some injured players and a small rotation \[tonight\]. It's tough, but in the end, we won and that's the important thing."

### Emanuele Molin, Dolomiti Energia Trento head coach

"In the second half we played with more patience – we had less turnovers – but with a roster so short, we struggled any time we had some stops. Congratulations to Buducnost because they played a consistent game. We knew before that it would be a tough game. We fought for 40 minutes, we stayed close with the score until 10 minutes to go, and I think my team has done a good job."

Jagodic-Kuridza, Buducnost: 'We had to step up and win tonight'

Buducnost VOLI Podgorica moved to the top of the Group B standings on Wednesday night after beating Dolomiti Energia Trento at Moraca Sports Center.

Marko Jagodic-Kuridza had a game-high 20 points for the hosts, while Igor Drobnjak and Petar Popovic also got into double figures with 15 and 11 points, respectively. Alpha Kaba only had 7 points for Buducnost, but he had a dominant night on the glass, finishing with 16 rebounds. Trento had Darion Atkins score 16 points, Trent Lockett contribute 14, Diego Flaccadori add 12 and Toto Forray chip in with 10, yet it was not enough as the visitors fell to a 73-58 defeat.

Trento made a good start to the game, led by 5 points from Atkins to open a 0-5 lead. Buducnost began to fight back, but then Lockett stepped up for the Italians with 7 points. Flaccadori and Andrejs Grazulis helped Trento go 10-18 ahead, but what followed was a 27-4 run between the end of the first quarter and seven minutes into the second, which put Buducnost up 37-22. Trento looked to respond, but it went into the break trailing 42-29, thanks in part to 11 second-quarter points by Jagodic-Kuridza. The visitors opened the third quarter with a 0-11 run to cut the gap to two points, 42-40, but 5 points from Jagodic-Kuridza gave Buducnost some breathing room once again. There was an eight-point difference, 54-46, entering the fourth quarter. While Buducnost extended it out to 12, 58-46, inside the first 47 seconds, Trento hit back with eight straight points to make things interesting at 58-54 with just under six minutes remaining. However, that's when Drobnjak came to the fore, scoring 10 of his 15 points in the final stages of the game to ensure that Buducnost came away with the win to improve to 5-2. Trento recorded its first victory of the season last week, but this defeat means that it is now 1-6 on the season.

Buducnost found another gear to down Trento, 73-58

Coming off his joint-lowest scoring game of the season, 7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys guard and leading scorer Jamel Morris had only 7 points at the midway point of the fourth quarter. Perhaps not coincidentally, his team was trailing Germani Brescia 66-68 at that point.

And then Morris took charge. He scored 6 points and dished 2 assists in a 13-2 run to close out the game. Morris first drained a go-ahead three-pointer. He showed aggressive effort with a foul on the next play. After a timeout, Morris’s pass set up Vytenis Lipkevicius for a three-pointer. Lipkevicius was fouled on the shot and sank the resulting three free throws.

Gabrielis Maldunas put Lietkabelis up by 6 entering the final 2 minutes and then Morris went to work again. He grabbed a rebound on one end and drew a foul on the other. He sank his free throws plus an extra one courtesy of a technical foul on the Brescia bench. Morris put the finishing touches on the game with an assist to Maldunas that made it 79-69.  

He finished the game with a team-high 13 points plus 5 assists and 1 steal. Even though the effort lowered his season scoring average to 16.1 points per game, that’s not what will be remembered. The important thing for Lietkabelis is that with the game in the balance in the fourth quarter, Morris was willing and able to take control and keep his team undefeated at home this season.

Morris lifted Lietkablis when he was needed most 

7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys v Germani Brescia (2022-12-07T17:00:00.000Z)

Gran Canaria sent a message that echoed all around the 7DAYS EuroCup by downing Turk Telekom Ankara 81-88 in the Turkish capital. An outstanding first half made the difference for Gran Canaria.

The visitors led 37-55 at halftime, dominating almost every aspect of the game. Vitor Benite was simply unstoppable, reaching halftime with 19 points and no misses, having made 3 two-pointers, 4 shots from downtown and a free throw. Gran Canaria buried 12 of 17 two-point shots (70.6% 2FG) in the first half and made 9 of 17 shots from beyond the arc (52.9% 3FG). 

Vitor Benite of Herbalife Gran Canaria had 19 of his 21 ponts in the first half to help his team get an 81-88 road victory against Turk Telekom Ankara.

Benite gets 19 first-half points in Ankara

Gran Canaria outrebounded Turk Telekom 13-17, including 6 offensive boards. The visitors also had 15 assists and just 4 turnovers. Gran Canaria had a team PIR of 70 at halftime compared to Turk Telekom's 39. Things were very different in the second half, in which Turk Telekom even managed to take a brief 78-77 lead. Gran Canaria saved its energy for crunch time, which is when Nico Brussino and Damien Ingles made the difference. 

Gran Canaria made just 1 of 15 three-pointers after the break (6.7%), but a great first half allowed Gran Canaria to return home with a good-as-gold victory. 

Gran Canaria's first half made the difference in Ankara 

Turk Telekom Ankara v Gran Canaria (2022-12-07T17:00:00.000Z)

U-BT Club-Napoca gained a rousing home win over Joventut Badalona, 98-82, on Wednesday. With the victory Cluj improved to 3-4, within a game of Joventut, which dropped to 4-3. Joventut led for most of the first half, but Cluj finished strong for a 46-41 halftime lead. The host continued to dominate as the advantage grew as high as 15 points in the third quarter, and Joventut couldn’t get closer than 8 points the rest of the way. 

Leo Meindl led the way for Cluj with 21 points and 10 rebounds, while Karel Guzman (19 points) and Nemanja Gordic (11 points and 9 assists) also excelled. Pau Ribas and Andres Feliz shined in defeat for Joventut with 20 points apiece. 

Early triples for Feliz and Ribas sent Joventut ahead, 2-6. A trio of baskets from Meindl gave Cluj the lead, 16-14, but Ribas scored twice to make it 17-22 after 10 minutes. Meindl and Sanders hit three-pointers to tie it at 29-29. Ribas scored twice in a 0-7 run, but Victor Sanders and Gordic did likewise for a 46-41 halftime lead. 

Stefan Bircevic and Guzman started the second half with a pair of triples apiece, 60-51, and Sanders added back-to-back threes to make it 70-56. Patrick Richard also struck twice from deep to bridge the third and fourth quarters, 79-65, before 5 points from Feliz rallied Joventut to 83-75. But two more scores from Meindl helped seal a comfortable home victory.

Cluj pummels Joventut, 98-82

U-BT Cluj-Napoca v Joventut Badalona (2022-12-07T17:30:00.000Z)

### U-BT Club-Napoca head coach Mihai Silvasan:

“I’m not surprised. We played a good basketball game, we managed to hit some shots and I’m really happy that we scored 98 points on a team that had received until now just 73 points per game. An unbelievable offensive performance from our team. The defensive side wasn’t bad, of course, we can improve but I’m very happy and grateful for this victory and the way we played. We had a good day three-point shooting and this is basketball – if you score you have chances to win, if you miss a lot of shots it’s difficult.

“Basketball is much easier when you score 16 threes with 50%. I congratulate my guys for having a good spirit, for wishing to take this win. They didn’t have one moment when they gave up or were in doubt. We played tough, won the rebounding battle, won the assists battle, we shared the ball good. We hit a lot of threes but most of them we created and they were open shots. It’s a great achievement for us to beat a team that has this history and comes from such a tough league. We are proud but we have to move forward and take care of the next games.”

### Joventut Badalona head coach Carles Duran:

“Today is a very bad day for us, but the game has finished and we have to think in the right way. Now it’s difficult for us, more problems, but we try to think of the next game.

“Congrats to Cluj, they played very well tonight. When you receive 100 points it’s impossible to win. In the first quarter, we played better, but in the other quarters, only one team played. Cluj played with more energy, won the rebounds, steals...different things. I think the key was Cluj played with more energy than us.”

### U-BT Club-Napoca forward Leo Meindl:

“I’m very happy. We followed our plan well, we have two more games this year and we’ve got to do everything to win both.”