With a defensive tour de force after halftime, Joventut Badalona avenged a painful playoff loss from last season by downing host ratiopharm Ulm 54-68 on Wednesday.
Joventut storms past host Ulm after halftime
Ulm led 35-30 at halftime but was held to 6 points through the next 14 minutes as the visitors ran away with the win. Joventut improved to 4-1, good for a first-place tie in Group A, while Ulm fell to 2-3. Simon Birgander led the winners with 11 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocks. Pau Ribas had 11 points and 5 assists. Ulm got 14 points from Karim Jallow, all in the first half, while Yago Dos Santos scored 9 and dished 4 assists. Ulm's 6 third-quarter points were the team's lowest total in any quarter in its 133 7DAYS EuroCup games to date, as were its 19 second-half points the club's fewest in any half.
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Pep Busquets drilled 2 corner triples as Joventut jumped ahead 3-8. Thomas Klepeisz tied from before Jallow's second dunk put Ulm ahead, 14-12. Joel Parra's three-pointer let Joventut retake the lead, but Jallow's finger-roll gave Ulm a 20-19 edge after 10 minutes. Guy's 5 points tied it and Andres Feliz layed up for a new Joventut lead at 24-26. Dos Santos broke the next tie from deep for Ulm and dunks by Jallow and Nicolas Bretzel sent the hosts to a 35-30 halftime lead. Parra's next triple drew Joventut within 37-35 midway through a defensive-minded third quarter. Ribas copied him and added a three-point play before assisting Birgander twice as Joventut surged ahead 37-46. Joventut would hold Ulm to just 6 points in the third quarter to lead 41-48. Ribas lifted the lead to double digits, 41-53, with a triple as Ulm remained cold until Klepeisz hit from deep almost 5 minutes into the fourth quarter. By then, Joventut was up 44-62 and well on its way to full revenge for having lost at home to Ulm in last season's eighthfinals.