The defending champs remain the lone undefeated team in the competition this season.
Gran Canaria rolls past Buducnost in second half, 97-70
Dreamland Gran Canaria remained the only undefeated in the BKT EuroCup with a dominant third quarter in producing a 97-70 victory over Buducnost VOLI Podgorica at home. The reigning champion put together a 19-4 run in the third quarter to pull away for good and finish the first half of the regular season with a 9-0 record in Group B.
Sylven Landesberg paced four scorers in double figures with 18 points for Gran Canaria, while Andrew Albicy netted 11 points and Nicolas Brussino and Pierre Pelos both added 10. In the fight to reach the playoffs, Buducnost dropped to 3-6 after last week having snapped a four-game losing streak. Marvin Jones was Buducnost’s main weapon with 22 points.
Landesberg, Jones shine early
AJ Slaughter’s three-pointer put the hosts up early 7-4 before a back-and-forth with 5 lead changes and 3 ties and Jones scoring 4 points as Buducnost led 10-12. Jones moved to 10 points already but Landesberg drained two three-pointers at the other end to make it 20-18. Landesberg added 2 more triples and the Gran Canaria cushion grew to 28-20. Buducnost was down 28-23 after 10 minutes.
Hosts protect narrow margin
Roko Prkacin started the scoring in the second quarter for the hosts but Buducnost closed within 30-28. Gran Canaria scored the next 4 points and it was 36-30 after a Pelos score. Brandon Paul countered with 2 three-pointers and a triple from McKinley Wright knotted the game at 41-41. The hosts responded with 5 points and Brussino hit a buzzer-beating triple to give them a 49-44 lead at intermission.
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Gran Canaria pulls away
Buducnost’s Andrija Slavkovic opened the second half and Gran Canaria needed 2 minutes to score. But Pelos hit a three-pointer and Brussino scored 4 points and the hosts lead pushed to 58-48. Albicy, Ferran Bassas and Miquel Salvo added three-pointers as the cushion swelled to 71-52. The advantage was 75-54 after 30 minutes.
Gran Canaria did not really let up with 5 of the first 7 points of the fourth quarter for an 80-56 lead. Jovan Kljajic made sure Buducnost didn’t dream of a comeback with 8 points as the lead was 91-61 with 4 minutes to go and the game decided for good.