Hamburg edges Trento, 89-87, to clinch playoff spot

Veolia Towers Hamburg sealed its qualification to the 7DAYS EuroCup Eighthfinals after grabbing a narrow 89-87 victory over Dolomiti Energia Trento at Edel-Optics.De Arena. In a tight back-and-forth game, the visitors responded to Hamburg’s runs, but the hosts showed character and secured their second home victory in a row. Hamburg improved to 6-11, while Trento was eliminated, as it dropped to 3-14.

Anthony Polite led Hamburg with a season-high 27 points, while Yoeli Childs added 18 and downed 20 rebounds to tie the all-time EuroCup record with a whopping 11 offensive boards. Lukas Meisner scored 16 points and recorded 7 rebounds to inspire Hamburg to victory. Matteo Spagnolo had 21 points for the losing team, while Drew Crawford and Toto Forray added 16 and 13, respectively, but they failed to help Trento clinch its first road win this season.

Polite opened the scoring with a three-point play, but what followed was an exchange of punches in the paint until Meisner opened his account from behind the arc to hand Hamburg a 12-7 lead. Andrejs Grazulis started hot and scored seven of Trento’s first 10 points, with Maximilian Ladurner coming off the bench to net 2 free throws for his team’s first lead, 12-14. Forray added 8 points off the bench in less than 4 minutes to help Trento establish its largest lead in the first quarter, 22-26.

An inspired Spagnolo hit the ground running in the second quarter and scored 6 straight points to stretch Trento’s lead to 24-32 and force Hamburg head coach Benka Barloschky to call a timeout. Hamburg bounced back with two imposing Childs dunks and Polite added 5 points to tie the game 37-37. The visitors headed into halftime with a 44-45 lead.

Polite scored a bucket and recorded his second steal to set up Christoph Philipps in transition, 48-45. Hamburg went on an 8-0 run, as Trento was scoreless for the first 3 minutes of the third quarter. It was time for Diego Flaccadori to step up, as he sunk back-to-back three-pointers with Spagnolo adding 2 points to tie the game at 55-55. That’s when Polite came to the fore again to score 5 unanswered points and take his tally to 17 for a 60-55 Hamburg lead. Meisner scored a three-pointer for Hamburg’s largest lead, 69-60, but Trento turned the game around in the fourth quarter when Crawford scored twice from behind the arc and the guests went on an 11-0 run for a 72-75 lead.

Meisner netted 6 straight points to tie the game 80-80 and Polite made a huge steal before running in transition to make his layup and get the and-one, 83-30. Hamburg entered crunch time leading 85-84 and although Polite added another 4 points for an 89-84 lead, Trento refused to give up, as Crawford scored his fourth three-pointer of the night to reduce the deficit to 2. With the score at 89-87, the visitors had the last possession to win the game or send it to overtime. Yet, Grazulis missed from behind the arc and Darion Atkins failed to make a contested two-pointer despite taking the offensive round, as Hamburg came out victorious from the thriller.