Despite a late Hamburg rally, Cluj’s offensive firepower proved decisive at BT Arena
Russell, Creek combine for 43 as Cluj hammers Hamburg
Game Report
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 14 of 18
Regular Season
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U-BT Cluj-NapocaUBT
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Veolia Towers HamburgHAM
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“We just needed to win the game, it didn’t matter by how many points, as long as we got the job done,” said Daron "Fatts" Russell, after he inspired his team to an 11-point victory over Veolia Hamburg Towers on Tuesday night.
The American guard played the starring role in a 103-92 victory over the visiting German squad at BT Arena. Controlling the pace for the majority of the contest, the hosts earned a win that moved them to 8-6 for their EuroCup campaign and strengthened their hopes for postseason basketball.
“Now, we need to build momentum moving forward, get a couple of wins on the road, that will be good for us,” Russell shared.
Coach Mihai Silvasan’s men will have their chance to grab one of those precious road wins as early as next Tuesday, when they travel to face Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana in a clash that could have a major impact on playoff seeding.
"The goal was the victory,” said Silvasan. “We wanted to come back home, play a solid game, and win. It wasn’t perfect, but we take the win, we scored 103 points, and we move forward.”
Cluj leaned on its high-scoring duo in Russell and Mitchell Creek. The former ran the show, adding 5 boards and 4 dishes to his impressive 23-point scoring display, while shooting at a clip of 8-of-16 from the field. Australian forward Creek also put up major numbers for the hosts, finishing the game with 20 points, 4 assists and 5 rebounds. Bolstering the offense further, Nighael Ceaser, Karel Guzman and Dusan Miletic also finished on double figures.
Zacharie Perrin stood out for Hamburg with 19 points and 13 boards for his third double-double of the campaign.
This one may hurt Benka Barloschky and his team, but Hamburg’s season has been solely about pride for a while now. The Towers fell to 0-14 for the season after the loss and with this being their final European road trip, they will remain winless on the road for the entire campaign. Having committed 10 more turnovers than Cluj, they have plenty to work on ahead of their four remaining home fixtures.
"I like the EuroCup and I also enjoy traveling to other European cities to play against the best teams on the continent. That’s why I’m a little sad that this is our last EuroCup trip of the season," Barloschky reflected.
“We had a very poor start in both halves, both at the beginning of the first and the second. At this level, especially away against a strong team, the margin for error is too small to compensate for such deficits. We managed to make the game closer at times, but then avoidable turnovers set us back again. That’s something we cannot accept and absolutely must improve. With cleaner ball control, we would have had a chance to make the game competitive.”
Both of these teams will compete next week, with Hamburg hosting Umana Reyer Venice on Wednesday, one night after Cluj’s trip to the Slovenian capital.
