Austin Wiley, Stefan Dordevic, and Trevion Williams headline a season where second chance scoring efficiency is outpacing half court production across the competition
Stats review: Put-back scoring powers Bahcesehir’s push toward the playoffs
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Bahcesehir College Istanbul secured an important victory over Group A leader Hapoel Midtown Jerusalem in Round 15 of the BKT EuroCup, setting the stage for a final push for a bye to the quarterfinals. En route to a 94-82 victory in Hala Sportova Ranko Zeravica, the visitors scored 11 points on put-backs, quickly turning offensive rebounds into points to complete a double-digit comeback.
As the table above suggests, Bahcesehir has not just been prolific on the glass this season, but it has been one of the EuroCup’s most productive team’s scoring put backs. While there’s great value in securing extra possessions on the glass — something the Turkish club has excelled at, ranking behind only Besiktas GAIN Istanbul in the percentage of available offensive rebounds the team has secured this year — what teams get from those boards tends to be impactful on the scoreboard as well.
While some teams do a great job of rotating the ball back out to the perimeter to find shooters or reset their offenses, the average put-back possession has been converted for 1.12 points per possession, with teams shooting 58% and drawing trips to the line steadily. That sits well ahead of the 0.98 average for all possessions, as there’s real value in the ability of a team to pay off their rebounding efforts on the scoreboard, whether it is with a tip dunk or a contested stick back in traffic.
Neptunas Klaipeda has been this season’s top put-back scoring team. Some of that can be traced in large part to the early work of James Karnik, who averaged 4.2 points on stick backs through six games, but this team has sustained its production through a group effort with multiple players averaging close to 2 points per game.
Bahcesehir has also had several players make a consistent impact on the boards. Though the efforts of Trevion Williams have landed him fourth in individual put-back scoring — his ability to use his frame inside often pays dividends when the ball bounces his way off the rim. Balsa Koprivica and Tyler Cavanaugh have also been opportunistic inside and all three players contributed on the offensive glass in Round 15 to notch a critical victory.
Stefan Dordevic of Slask Wroclaw and Austin Wiley of Jerusalem are also among this season’s most prolific individual put-back scorers to drive their team’s placement here. They are both averaging over 3 points per game — in line to be the first players to eclipse that mark since the 2022-23 season. Wiley also leads the EuroCup in both offensive and total rebounding percentage. The 27-year-old has not had a shortage of good seasons rebounding the ball, but Wiley has elevated his game significantly this season, putting himself on pace to become the top per-shot rebounder in EuroCup history.
With only three games remaining, critical moments can come on the margins, and what teams accomplish on the glass and do with those second chances is something to monitor as the regular season winds down.