Former 7DAYS EuroCup champion Will Cummings is the undisputed leader of Boulogne Metropolitans 92, and on Wednesday he made that extra clear in the team's 99-82 home win over Turk Telekom Ankara. Cummings matched his career high with 26 points by hitting 6 of 9 two-pointers, 3 of 5 triples and 5 of 5 free throws in 27 minutes of action in which he was pretty much unstoppable. He also had 2 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals while committing but a single turnover despite doing most of the team's ball-handling.

Pivotal Performer: Will Cummings, Metropolitans

Cummings finished with a PIR of 32, which was just 2 off his career-high of 34, which he posted in a losing cause on the road against Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar earlier this season. In that game, though, he played more than 33 minutes, and in this one he took a seat with exactly 5 minutes left, not to be seen again, because his last bucket made it 85-68. By then Metropolitans was not only the clear winner but was sure to cover its eight-point loss from the first meeting with Turk Telekom. And for Cummings, his leadership had made it happen, so it was time to rest and look ahead. 

Gran Canaria relies on assists, two-pointers

It finished the game with 24 assists, one shy of its season-high against Virtus Segafredo Bologna in Round 8. Gran Canaria made 22 of 37 two-point shots (59.5% 2FG), and limited Cedevita to just 15-of-37 shooting inside the arc (40.5% 2FG), in what was another big key to this game. 

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Nicolas Brussino 2- Gran Canaria (photo Ales Ferves - Cedevita) - EC21

Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana v Gran Canaria (2022-01-19T19:30:00.000Z)

Lokomotiv was missing one of the best big men in Europe with Johnathan Motley and Alan Williams stepped up in his stead. He collected a monster double-double of 17 points and 14 rebounds to go along with 3 assists and 2 steals for a PIR of 29. 

Williams steps up with Motley out

The 28-year-old center had totalled 12 points and 6 rebounds in his last three games combined. It was the second time this season that Williams had a double-double, tallying 12 points and 11 rebounds against Turk Telekom Ankara in Round 5.

MoraBanc Andorra v Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar (2022-01-19T19:00:00.000Z)

Alan Williams - Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar (photo Martin Imatge - Andorra) - EC21

This is what the protagonists of the game had to say after such a close deal down the stretch.

Post-Game Quotes: Andorra 76-86 Lokomotiv


### Branko Maksimovic, Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar

“I must say thank you to my guys. We really followed our plans for 35 minutes. In just those 5 minutes in the second quarter we lost our idea. This is a team victory, and I’m proud of my guys. A win is the best medicine.” 


### David Eudald, Assistant Coach MoraBanc Andorra

“We started the game really bad. The first 15 minutes were bad. They played really physical, really tough. And we had a lot of problems trying to play basketball and stop their offense. They scored 51 points in the first half so it was tough to come back. We tried in the third quarter. We recovered a little bit. But with guys like McCollum scoring 30 points, it’s difficult to come back.”


### Errick McCollum, Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar
“We were motivated before the game. My wife texted me before the game. She said one of the players said we were without our two best players and that they should win easy. I took offense to that. Any time we step on the court with a Lokomotiv jersey on, we always have a chance to win. I think they’ll respect us now. Guys went down. We’re missing one of the best big men in Europe in Johnathan Motley. Hope he gets well. We’re missing Greg Whittington, we’re missing Sasha [Shcherbenev]. We’re missing a lot of players. But it’s the next man up. I told the team before, if everybody can play 20 percent better than their normal self - if you’re a rebounder, I need 20 percent more rebounds; if you’re a defender, I need 20 percent better defense. And so on and so on. That was the model. As a leader, as a vet, it’s on me to set the tone, set the example. And I tried to do that in the first quarter.”


Oriol Pauli - MoraBanc Andorra (photo Martin Imatge - Andorra) - EC21

Errick McCollum has been playing otherworldly of late and he continued that with two of the team’s leaders down.

McCollum shines again

McCollum poured in 30 points with 4 three-pointers and 8-of-9 free throws to go along with 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal and 1 block for a performance index rating of 36. McCollum has scored at least 23 points in his last five games and twice hit at least 30. And he has made 35-of-41 free throws in the last three games.

Errick McCollum - Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar (photo Martin Imatge - Andorra) - EC21

Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar shrugged off missing two of its leading players in defeating MoraBanc Andorra 76-86 in Group A to snap its three-game losing streak. Lokomotiv, which was without big men Johnathan Motley and Gregg Whittington, raced away early by 16 points and the advantage was 19 points before Andorra pulled within three just after the break. The guests increased the margin to 13 points in the third quarter and it was never close in the final 10 minutes. 

Lokomotiv races past Andorra, snaps road losing streak, 76-86

Errick McCollum was unstoppable with 30 points and 6 assists while Alan Williams picked up 17 points and 14 rebounds and Darius Thompson chipped in 17 points in helping Lokomotiv move to 7-3. Andorra dropped to 5-4 - with its first loss at home this season - despite Codi Miller-McIntyre tallying 20 points and 8 assists. Amine Noua did score 12 points and Moussa Diagne had 4 points and 10 rebounds. 

Williams got the guests on the board first with a jump hook with Conor Morgan hitting a three-pointer for Andorra. Lokomotiv scored the next five points and then McCollum tallied six points in a 1-10 surge to pull ahead 6-17. After Noua slowed the run, McCollum poured in the next seven points for 14 points already and an 8-24 advantage. Andorra did manage the final five points of the quarter to trail 13-24 after 10 minutes.

Lokomotiv opened the second quarter with the first four points and it was 18-30 when McCollum continued his scoring onslaught with a three-pointer and Zakhar Vedishchev made it 20-37. Miller-McIntyre countered with a tough layup and three-pointer to try to get Andorra closer at 27-39. Lokomotiv answered with the next seven points to move ahead 27-46. Andorra came up with back-to-back three-pointers from Miller-McIntyre and Clevin Hannah and the deficit was down to 37-48. Thompson punched back with a triple but the hosts continued to surge and were down just 45-51 at the break. 

Hannah’s three-pointer to start the second half got the gap down to three points. McCollum came up with a four-point play at the other end with Williams chipping in six points and McCollum drained another triple and the cushion was back to double figures 57-68. Vedishchev followed with a triple as well and Lokomotiv held a 61-72 lead after 30 minutes.

Neither team scored in first 2 minutes of the final frame until Williams’ basket. McCollum followed with a free throw after a second technical foul on Andorra Ibon Navarro - getting him ejected from the game - and the margin was 61-79 before the hosts finally scored with under 6 minutes left. Andorra did score the next six points to pull within 12 points - 67-79 - with 4 minutes remaining. Thompson scored after a timeout and Andorra just could not get enough stops to challenge the rest of the way. 

Darius Thompson - Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar (photo Martin Imatge - Andorra) - EC21

Andorra’s main issue was 2-point shooting as the hosts made just 19-of-42 for 45.2% - not to mention just 27.3% on three-pointers. Lokomotiv was outstanding on two-pointers, connecting on 57.9%. Andorra grabbed 17 offensive rebounds to 11 for Lokomotiv but both teams scored 14 second-chance points.

No success on two-pointers for Andorra

Lokomotiv also made 21-of-30 free throws compared to just 11-of-18 for Andorra from the foul line. The hosts also committed only 8 turnovers but that too could not help them get the win.

Codi Miller-McIntyre - MoraBanc Andorra (photo Martin Imatge - Andorra) - EC21

On a night when so little went well for Buducnost VOLI Podgorica, Justin Cobbs put up another big stat line. The veteran guard amassed 17 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals and 1 block alongside 5 turnovers. He made 4 of 10 two-pointers, converted his only three-point try and was perfect in 6 trips to the foul line. 

Cobbs comes through again for Buducnost

Amazingly, those impressive numbers are below average for him in a season in which he’s been worth 18.4 points and 4.6 assists per game. Cobbs moved into sole possession of 13th place on the EuroCup’s all-time assists charts with 315 and he is now just 16 dimes behind Marko Popovic for 10th place. 

Buducnost VOLI Podgorica v ratiopharm Ulm (2022-01-19T18:00:00.000Z)

Justin Cobbs 2- Buducnost VOLI Podgorica (photo Buducnost) - EC21

Post-Game Quotes: Buducnost 68-89 Ulm


### Tyson McCoy, Assistant Coach ratiopharm Ulm

“All the congratulations goes to the players. I’m just a fill-in guy. This is Jaka [Lakovic]’s work and the guys responded to the adversity of missing their coach and getting here late last night. They’ve done an excellent job. They did everything we wanted them to do. We had a little bit of an advantage in that they were missing Reed; that kind of broke their rhythm inside. And also Nikolic. But we did a very good job inside as a group.”


### Aleksandar Dzikic, Buducnost VOLI Podgorica

“We knew how they were gonna try to play tonight, that’s what they were executing. We just didn’t find the right kind of answers. That’s all. They killed us and with their size, we just didn’t have a response for it. That’s it. We have to keep on working.” 


### Cristiano Felicio, ratiopharm Ulm
“With all the adversity we had yesterday to get here and to come out the way we played today is a statement to everybody, a statement for us to what we can do when we stay together. We came here, we did that, we followed the game plan as the coach wanted us to do and we got a big win.”


Edin Atic - Buducnost VOLI Podgorica (photo Buducnost) - EC21