Gran Canaria big man Khalifa Diop stepped up with the absence of injured John Shurna as the 20-year-old big man had his best game of the season.

Khalifa Diop with best showing of the season

The Senegal center, who just celebrated his birthday on January 15, scored 11 points on 3-of-5 shooting and 5-of-6 free throws to go with 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal and 5 fouls drawn for a performance index rating of 17. His points and PIR were season highs - besting the 9 points and PIR of 11 against ratiopharm Ulm in Round 6. Diop’s career highs are 14 points and 25 index rating - both set against Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana in November 2020.

Post-Game Quotes: Gran Canaria 81-62 Promitheas


#### Porfi Fisac, Gran Canaria

 “In the first half we tried to stop their main players. We improved on that in the second half with a great, great defense.”


#### Ilias Zouros, Promitheas Patras

 “Congratulations to Gran Canaria, they deserved to win the game. We had a terrible third quarter. We didn’t exist on the court - mentally, physically - and we gave Gran Canaria the chance to come back and take a big lead and win the game. I wish them good luck and we have to continue our job.”


#### Dylan Ennis, Gran Canaria

 “I feel great. I hope the next game we can start the first half like this second half. But we’re learning. We haven’t played at home for a while. It’s been a tough schedule. But we’re going to keep chipping away. At this point, as long as we win, that’s the main thing. We just have to keep getting better.”

Andrew Albicy 2- Gran Canaria (photo Gran Canaria) - EC21

The most glaring statistical outlier on the box score was Promitheas’s woeful outside shooting. The visitors managed just 3-of-20 shooting on three-pointers (15.0%) while Gran Canaria drained 9 of 20 triples (45.0%). 

By the numbers: Promitheas outside shooting woes

The other major difference was 18 Promitheas turnovers with the hosts committing only 12. Those turned out to be very troublesome as Gran Canaria converted them into 26 points. Promitheas could only come up with 7 points off of Gran Canaria’s miscues.

Dimitris Agravanis - Promitheas Patras (photo Gran Canaria) - EC21

Promitheas Patras guards Kendrick Ray and Abdul Gaddy were both hoping to celebrate their birthdays in style on the island - capped off with a victory to end a losing streak. 

No birthday presents for Ray, Gaddy

Ray turned 28 and started the game strong and ended with 17 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 5 fouls drawn for an index rating of 17. Gaddy had 4 points, 2 rebounds and 4 assists on his 30th birthday. Unfortunately for the Promitheas duo, that was not enough and they suffered the loss.

Kendrick Ray - Promitheas Patras (photo Gran Canaria) - EC21

Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse made a winning streak for the first time this season after holding off Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana 76-69 on Wednesday at Ekinox. Bourg outscored the visitors 10-0 over the final 5 minutes of the second quarter to lead 37-25 at halftime and was able to fend off Cedevita’s charges in the third and fourth quarters to build on the Round 10 victory at Umana Reyer Venice and improve to 4-7 on the season. The result took Bourg past Cedevita in the standings, too, as the visitors fell to 3-7. 

Bourg holds off Cedevita for second straight win, 76-69

Maxime Courby led all Bourg scorers with 13 points, Axel Julien recorded his first double-double in the competition with 12 points and 10 assists and Hugo Benitez added 10 points. Yogi Ferrell paced Cedevita with 24 points, Edo Muric tallied 13 points and 12 rebounds and Jaka Blazic also scored 13 in defeat.

Ferrell opened the scoring with a floater and Muric turned a broken play into a layup to double the lead. Rasheed Sulaimon got Bourg on the scoreboard with free throws, Pierre Pelos evened things with a fade-away jumper and Sulaimon gave the hosts their first lead. It was 8-4 after Alexandre Chassang’s jumper. Ferrell and Melvin Ejim sandwiched threes around a triple by Julien to trim the gap. Cedevita continued to find success from deep and threes by Muric and Ferrell knotted the score at 18-18. After layups by Jacob Pullen and Maxime Roos, the first quarter ended with the teams tied 20-20.

After an extended break between the quarters due to a clock malfunction, Benitez took charge for Bourg with free throws and a triple as the hosts regained the lead. Pullen kept Cedevita close, 27-25, midway through the quarter. Courby took charge with a pair of threes to highlight a 10-0 surge while the Bourg defense kept Cedevita scoreless for the final 6 minutes of the half. The hosts went into halftime in control 37-25.

Bourg picked up when it left off with Julien flinging assists on the first two possessions, the second a triple by Courby for a 15-point lead. Cedevita started to score and Blazic got on the scoreboard with back-to-back three-pointers to trim the deficit to 45-37. Zoran Dragic converted a basket-plus-foul and Edo Muric completed a 0-12 run with a triple to bring the visitors within 45-43. Chassang ended the Bourg bleeding with a jumper before Blazic and Julien traded threes. JaCorey Williams and Benitez helped Bourg pad its lead, which reached 9 on a three by Pelos. Blazic made free throws to bring Cedevita within 59-52 at the end of the third quarter.

Cedevita went cold again to start the fourth with a pair of free throws by Pullen its only points for nearly 4 minutes. Ferrell got to the line and trimmed the deficit further and his baseline jumper silenced the arena at 62-59. He added another free throw before matching Julien’s three with one of his own. Sulaimon’s first triple of the night made it 68-63 with 4 minutes remaining. After a timeout, Julien drained his 4th three of the night and Chassang restored a double-digit advantage with free throws. Cedevita continued to fight, but time became the enemy and Bourg held on for the victory.

Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse v Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana (2022-01-26T19:00:00.000Z)

Pierre Pelos - Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse (photo Jacques Cormareche - Bourg) - EC21

Due to the absence of players like Jordan Caroline and Toto Forray, Dolomiti Energia Trento again limited its rotation to just eight players. It was the same number of resources Coach Emanuele Molin used in the previous two games against Partizan NIS Belgrade and Joventut Badalona in Rounds 9 and 10, when they lost 97-65 and 82-65, respectively. 

Trento fights despite limited rotation

In this game, Trento looked close to a collapse when it trailed 40-65 after halftime, but a 10-0 run in the last 3 minutes of the third quarter revived the hosts and helped them come within 66-76, late in the fourth.

Dolomiti Energia Trento v MoraBanc Andorra (2022-01-26T19:00:00.000Z)

Diego Flaccadori - Dolomiti Energia Trento (photo Trento) - EC21

Coming to this game, Dolomiti Energia Trento and Morabanc Andorra had displayed opposite performances in rebounding battles. The home team had been outrebounded by an average of 4.3 rebounds per game, and the visitors had taken 2.8 rebounds more than their opponents on average. 

By the numbers: Andorra controls the rebounding 

Despite knowing it must tighten things up on the glass to improve its chances, Trento could not prevent Andorra from grabbing 9 more rebounds (44) and scoring 9 more second-chance points (17), which proved decisive in a game that saw the hosts slump to another poor shooting night.

Mario Nakic - MoraBanc Andorra (photo Trento) - EC21

Post-Game Quotes: Trento 71-82 Andorra


#### David Eudal,  MoraBanc Andorra

“I’m incredibly proud of my players. They played a great game. It was not easy to play as we did tonight. They did it great, they played a very solid game, as we wanted to play. I’m so happy for them, for the players, because they have suffered a lot this week. I hope they will keep working like this, and we want to thank and send a big hug to Ibon Navarro.

“As I said before the game, it was going to be a difficult one, because of all the things we went through. But the game finally came. The players suffered a little bit in the first quarter to find themselves, to make open three-point shots, but after that, we played very solid defense during the whole game, we started to share the ball to find good options, we controlled the defensive rebound too so I’m happy for the job done. We are happy for the win, we keep going, and I hope this win can help us improve in the domestic competition too.”


#### Emmanuele Molin, Dolomiti Energia Trento

 “Congratulations to Andorra, they played the game with a really good physical impact. My team did not have enough energy and the lack of strength and aggressiveness was a factor all game long. I think the players that went to the court gave everything, although it was not enough. For sure we played a poor game in terms of shooting percentages but we must look forward because there is another important game in front of us.”


#### Codi Miller-McIntyre,  MoraBanc Andorra

 “We played hard for 40 minutes. I think a lot of games we really played hard for maybe 35, 36, but tonight I think we did a really good job, being focused for the entire 40.”

Desonta Bradford - Dolomiti Energia Trento (photo Trento) - EC21

Morabanc Andorra returned to the win column by beating Dolomiti Energia Trento 71-82 at BLM Group Arena on Wednesday night. The visitors had to wait until the end of the second quarter to build a double-digit lead, 31-41, which grew to 40-65 late in the third quarter. Despite Trento getting back within 10-points entering crunch time, back-to-back dunks by Moussa Diagne and Babatunde Olumuyiwa sealed the outcome for Andorra. 

Andorra tops Trento to snap losing streak, 71-82

Drew Crawford set the tone for the winners with 15 points, followed by Clevin Hannah (12) and Nacho Llovet (10). Trento was led by Wesley Saunders, who went for 13 points and 6 rebounds. Andrea Mezzanote and Cameron Reynolds scored 12 apiece and Desonta Bradford netted 11 in defeat. Andorra snapped a two-game losing streak to improve to 5-5. Trento suffered its sixth loss in a row to drop to 1-10.

Both teams struggled in offense in the early going and even though offensive rebounding granted several second chances on each end, the score was 4-5 after 6 minutes. Diego Flaccadori broke the trend with a three and Reynolds followed from the line to bring Trento to 9-5, but Mario Nakic and Llovet answered quickly to put the visitors back in charge, 9-10. The lead switched from hand to hand until Crawford hit from deep and Flaccadori scored a couple of free throws to get it all square, 15-15, at the end of the first quarter.

It took more than 2 minutes to see the first field goal in the second quarter, which came when Crawford turned a steal into a fastbreak slam. Oriol Pauli followed with a long triple soon after to make it 17-22 and force Trento to call timeout. Mezzanote provided a three after the break, but it was useless as Andorra reacted with a 0-8 run capped by a layup by Codi Miller-McIntyre that built a 20-30 edge for the visitors. Even though the hosts finally managed to find a steady scorer in Bradford, Hannah took over on the other end to score 5 points in a row that helped Andorra keep a comfortable 31-41 halftime advantage.

The visitors came out strong after the intermission and extended the gap to 34-48 behind twos by Olumuyiwa and Miller-McIntyre and a triple from Hannah. Trento was unable to string together a couple of successful offenses and Andorra took advantage of that to keep digging. Hannah had an offensive spark in which he scored a couple of buckets and fed Llovet for a three-point play that ripped it to 38-57 midway through the third quarter. Diagne and Crawford made it even worse for the hosts when they drilled back-to-back threes to push Andorra above the 20-point barrier, 65-40. Trento refused to surrender, though, and a 10-0 run fueled by Mezzanote and a buzzer-beater triple by Bradford reduced it to 50-65 entering the last quarter.

The rally was stopped by a three-pointer by Llovet once the game resumed, as Trento lost its offensive momentum. A block by Maximilian Ladurner and a fastbreak layup by Luca Conti seemed to end the drought for the hosts, who came within 54-68 after a contested layup by Saunders with 6 minutes to go. Victor Arteaga scored twice from the field right after a timeout by Andorra to try to keep his team calm, but the home team kept rocking through Saunders and Bradford to make it 66-76 with less than 3 minutes remaining. A fastbreak slam by Diagne cooled it down for the visitors and a monster dunk by Olumuyiwa entering the last minute finally sealed the outcome.

Codi Miller-McIntyre - MoraBanc Andorra (photo Trento) - EC21