Polite inspired Hamburg to playoff qualification
When Veolia Towers Hamburg signed Anthony Polite in January, some may have wondered what sort of impact someone playing his first professional season in Europe could have on his team’s bid to secure a spot in the 7DAYS EuroCup knockout stages. Polite had just parted ways with LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne, where he didn’t enjoy much playing time in eight Turkish Airlines EuroLeague games. Yet, he has managed to deliver on the court and stepped up when his team needed him most to lead them to a glorious victory against Dolomiti Energia Trento.
The 25-year-old guard scored a season-high 27 points on Tuesday night when he went 8-for-12 (66.7%) on two-pointers, 2-for-4 (50.0%) from behind the arc and 5-for-8 (62.5%) from the free-throw line for a season-high PIR of 28. Polite produced an all-around performance, as he grabbed 4 rebounds, recorded just 1 turnover, distributed 2 assists and registered 3 steals. His third and most important steal came with 3:50 to go in the last quarter, when he ran in transition, made the layup and drew a foul to secure an important 83-80 lead for the hosts.
This was the sixth time he scored in double digits in his seven games for Hamburg. He had 16 points in less than 24 minutes in his debut against Turk Telekom Ankara and recorded single-digits in just one contest – Hamburg’s 83-66 road defeat to London Lions, against whom he only took 3 shots from the field. It has to be noted that Hamburg won half of the six games where he registered double-digits, including the Round 17 duel against Trento. Averaging 16.6 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.4 steals for 17.4 PIR thus far, Hamburg’s January signing came up big on Tuesday night to help his team secure a playoff spot.