The visitors from Germany held on after a game-winning miracle shot by the hosts came a split-second too late.
Ulm escapes for season sweep of Trento
ratiopharm Ulm solidified its chances of reaching the playoffs by holding on for a hard-fought 83-85 victory at Dolomiti Energia Trento and completing the season sweep of their Group B series. Ulm could never really put the hosts away and even just barely escaped a miraculous Trento win to improve to 7-3 with three wins in the last four games. L.J. Figueroa led Ulm with 20 points, Trevion Williams collected 15 points, 16 rebounds and 5 assists and Karim Jallow chipped in 10 points for the German side. Trento has now dropped three of its last four games for a 4-6 record. Kamar Baldwin paced six players in double figures with 18 points and 6 assists and Andrejs Grazulis added 15 points and 6 rebounds.
Game Videos
The game was close for the first 4 minutes, with Trento up 8-6. Ulm made the first run with the next 13 points, including three-pointers from Georginho De Paula and Jallow, to lead 8-19. Mattia Udom hit a three-pointer to snap a nearly 3 minute scoreless drought for Trento and Ulm was held to 2 free throws in the final 3 minutes of the quarter, but still led 13-21 when it finished. Williams scored the first 5 points of the second quarter as Ulm’s advantage grew to 13-26. Trento needed more than 2 minutes to finally score but then tallied the next 7 points make it 20-26. A Tobias Jensen three-pointer made it 20-31 for the road team, but Prentiss Hubb drained back-to-back triples and it was 26-33. After Baldwin hit for 8 points, Trento went into the break down just 42-43.
Saliou Niang opened the scoring in the second half by putting the hosts ahead 44-43. Baldwin added a three-pointer and the 19-year-old Niang moved to 10 points – 10 more than his career total – and the hosts led 51-45. Ulm’s offense finally heated back up with the next seven points as Jallow’s three-point play made it 51-52. It went back and forth with 3 lead changes and 2 ties in the final 6 minutes and the score was even, 63-63, after 30 minutes.
The game remained neck-and-neck with Grazulis scoring 5 points and Ulm teenager Pacome Dadiet picking up 4 points for a 68-69 lead with 6 minutes to go. Dakota Mathias added a triple for the guests, who moved ahead 68-74. Ulm managed a couple of defensive stops and Thomas Klepeisz’s long three-pointer extended the cushion to 70-79 with 3 minutes to play. Grazulis answered with 5 straight points and a free throw by Hubb trimmed it to 76-79. Figueroa’s tip-in was matched by a quick Baldwin score before Williams converted 2 free throws with 40 seconds left to leave Ulm up 78-83. Udom put back a miss and after Mathias converted just 1 of 2 free throws, Baldwin hit a corner triple to make it 83-84 with 3.9 seconds to go. With 3.0 seconds left, Mathias made the first free throw but intentionally missed the second. Trento grabbed the rebound and Baldwin banked in a long three-pointer but it was just after the buzzer – missing a chance for the game-winning miracle shot.