The victory was the eighth in a row for the Group A leaders and ended Joventut's win streak at seven.
Paris holds off Joventut, 89-82



Paris Basketball put an end to Joventut Badalona’s seven-game winning streak by beating the Spanish side 89-82 in Round 16 of the 2023-24 BKT EuroCup. The hosts were in control of the game in the first three quarters, but Joventut took its first lead of the night in the opening stages of the closing quarter. Nadir Hifi came to the fore in crunch time and netted his team’s last 8 points of the game to seal Paris’s eighth win in a row. With its victory on Tuesday night, Paris improved to a 15-1 record. Badalona dropped to 15-6, but remains in pursuit of a top-two spot.
Hifi led Paris with 17 points, with Collin Malcolm and Tyson Ward scoring 15 each. Youngster Enzo Shahrvin registered a career-high 12 points, while TJ Shorts and Mikael Jantunen added 10 apiece. For Joventut, Andres Feliz scored a game-high 20 points, Shannon Evans followed with 17 and Tyler Cook added 12.
Paris started strong, as a Shorts layup was followed by triples from Ward, Malcolm and Sy for an 11-2 lead. The visitors struggled on offense in the opening stages, having scored just 2 points in transition in the first 4 minutes. In fact, Joventut sank its second field goal of the night with 4:07 left on the clock in the first quarter through Michael Ruzic, who made it 17-7 from deep. Pau Ribas and Shahrvin traded baskets before Cook opened his account by hitting a couple of free throws, 21-12. Then, Evans and Ward exchanged triples and Paris took a 24-15 cushion into the second quarter.
A monster slam by Cook was followed by Feliz’s first triple of the night and Joventut cut the difference to 24-20. Paris responded with a 5-0 run behind 3 points by Shorts and a Ward bucket before Feliz made back-to-back three-pointers to bring Joventut within 32-30. A timeout by head coach Tuomas Iisalo served as a wake-up call for Paris, which went on a 9-0 run inspired by Malcolm, who netted a couple of tough baskets from inside. A Cook bucket was followed by a Yannick Kraag corner triple and the Spanish side managed to trim the deficit to 41-35 at halftime.
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Cook opened the third quarter with a couple of free throws, but Ward drilled one from behind the arc, 44-37. Following an exchange of blows from inside, Shorts nailed a triple to make it 49-41. Jantunen and Ante Tomic traded buckets before Malcolm extended Paris’s lead to 53-45 with a layup. Hifi responded to a Ruzic three-pointer with one of his own and Sebastian Herrera knocked down his first of the night from deep to make it 59-50. However, a Tomic basket and back-to-back triples from Ribas and Feliz were followed by a layup from the latter, who tied it 60-60.
The two teams were level 62-62 at the end of the third quarter, but Feliz put the guests ahead for the first time with a couple of free throws. Then, Malcolm and Evans traded triples before Feliz scored a reverse layup, 65-69. A Ward basket was followed by another Evans three-pointer, but Malcolm responded from beyond the arc to make it 70-72. Cook and Shahrvin scored a basket each before Jantunen drove twice to the basket to put Paris back in front, 77-76. Pep Busquets hit a big triple, but Hifi tied it with a midrange jumper before Shahrvin skied for a dunk in transition, 81-79, with 2:51 left on the clock. Hifi stepped up when it mattered most and hit back-to-back triples before nailing a layup to extend Paris’s lead to 89-82 and practically put the game to bed with half a minute remaining.