Unsung heroes carried Metropolitans

Boulogne Metropolitans 92 flipped the game script in the second half on Tuesday night to pull out an 81-74 victory over MoraBanc Andorra. A cursory look at the box score wouldn’t reveal anything unusual. The team’s top three scorers over the first seven games of the season – Will Cummings, Vince Hunter and Keith Hornsby – were the team’s top three scorers in this game, though not necessarily in that order. However, many of the game’s biggest moments came from some unsung heroes.

First, there was Lahaou Konate, who started at small forward, but was largely quiet in the first half, when he did not attempt even a single shot. When it appeared that the game was in danger of spiraling out of control in the third quarter, Konate took over.

Andorra led by 9 before Keith Hornsby scored the hosts’ first basket of the second half. Then Konate went to work. First, he grabbed an offensive rebound and drew a foul. On the ensuing possession, he pulled up and scored from the baseline. A minute later, after he grabbed a defensive rebound, Konate drilled a three from the top of the key. As Konate started feeling it, he threw in a shot in the lane to tie the game at 44-44. His personal highlight came when he attacked the heart of the Andorra defense and dunked to make it 49-46 as he alone outscored the visitors 9-2 over nearly 7 minutes.

Andorra regrouped after that to lead 55-56 early in the fourth when Tomer Ginat scored in the paint. The teams continued to go back and forth. With the score tied at 61-61, Tony Crocker beat the shot clock with a triple. Some 90 seconds later, Ginat tracked down an offensive rebound and found Crocker in the corner for a go-ahead three that made it 67-65. Andorra would not lead again.

Crocker’s clutch shooting came in his first EuroCup game with Metropolitans after he recently joined the club on a three-month contract. The 34-year-old forward made 18 of 40 three-pointers (45%) in his previous EuroCup stint with Tofas Bursa four years ago and introduced himself to the fans in Paris with some more big-time shooting.

Ginat’s timely plays should be no surprise to EuroCup fans. In his second season with Metropolitans, the big man started the team’s first five games and was averaging 8.4 points and 5.2 rebounds for a PIR of 10.2 before he suffered a leg injury playing for the Israeli national team. In his first game back, Ginat was a little rusty and finished with 4 points, 5 boards and a PIR of 2, but the fact that Coach Vincent Collet could count on him for the entire fourth quarter says plenty about his importance to the team.

“I just want to thank the team because we made a team effort on defense and we were focused for 40 minutes,” Konate said after the game. “I think that was most important for this win.”

All of that is true, with a special mention to three unsung heroes who made a world of difference in this game, even if their names weren’t in the headlines.