The Montenegrin side came away with a narrow 2-point victory.
Buducnost leaned on threes, offensive rebounds to beat Lietkabelis
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Regular Season
Round 10 of 18
Group B
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Buducnost VOLI Podgorica used its second half three-point shooting and perimeter defense, as well as offensive rebounding, to pick up its first road victory of the 2023-24 BKT EuroCup Regular Season.
Buducnost made 7-of-13 three-pointers in the final 20 minutes as it grabbed an 81-83 win at 7bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys to improve to 4-6 in Group B. That came after the Montenegrin side had struggled from long range, having made just 1-of-9 three-point attempts in the first half.
"In the second half, we tried to be more aggressive on offense. In the first half, we were too slow,” said Buducnost head coach Andrej Zakelj.
"I think we won because over long stretches of the game we were more focused. We got some stops on defense and built a lead. In the end, we were a little bit less focused. That’s why the end happened. But it’s a good win and now we move on.”
Buducnost stepped it up on defense
Coach Zakelj can be happy about his team’s perimeter defense, holding Lietkabelis to just 10-of-31 three-pointers for 32.3%. That is well below the 40.8% Buducnost was allowing opponents to shoot from long range, which ranked 18th in the competition. Lietkabelis also had made 42.2% of its three-pointers, the second-best shooting team in the EuroCup.
Buducnost also was uncharacteristically strong on the offensive glass with 11 offensive rebounds, 1.9 more than the team’s average coming into the game, ranked 17th. Lietkabelis also grabbed 9 offensive rebounds, 2.2 fewer than it had averaged thus far. And Buducnost used its opportunities for 16 second-chance points, compared to 9 for Lietkabelis.
“We were just focused. We came out focused from the beginning to the end. We played hard and played together,” said Buducnost big man Marvin Jones, who led the team with 15 points and added 6 rebounds in the win.