

Veolia Towers Hamburg was compact on defense from start to finish as it grabbed a convincing 91-74 victory over Paris Basketball in Round 15 of the 7DAYS EuroCup on Wednesday night. Paris's star guard Kyle Allman missed out through injury and his team subsequently struggled on offense, scoring more than 20 points in just one of the four quarters. Hamburg improved to 5-10 with the win, while Paris dropped to 9-6. The hosts came closer to clinching a playoff spot, as it sits eighth in Group B, while Paris dropped to fifth.
Lukas Meisner stood out and led Hamburg with 26 points. Another four players reached double digits, as Yoeli Childs paired his 14 points with 9 rebounds, while Harrison Cleary added another 14 points and Anthony Polite tallied 13. Aamir Simms recorded 21 points and Juhann Begarin logged 13 for the losing team.
Meisner started hot, sinking 4 three-pointers as Hamburg grabbed a 17-11 lead. Paris didn’t score a single three-pointer in the first 10 minutes of play, shooting 0-for-6 from behind the arc. The hosts took a 23-19 lead into the second quarter, but Amar Gegic scored 5 straight points to reduce the deficit, 26-24.
Hamburg didn't take long to bring Meisner back onto the court and its forward soon netted his fifth three-pointer, with Christoph Philipps adding 2 points in transition as Hamburg took a double-digit lead for the first time in the game, 36-26. Yet, Paris bounced back to trim down the deficit, 46-41, after Simms netted from three-point land and Tyrone Wallace added 3 points of his own just before the break.
Meisner scored 2 free throws to take his tally to 19 points just after the interval, before Childs netted a two-pointer to stretch Hamburg’s advantage to 50-41. The hosts were more aggressive on defense and managed to hold Paris to 16 points in the third quarter. Polite, Cleary and Meisner scored a combined 3 three-pointers in succession to make it a 72-53 game in the third quarter, meaning there was almost no way back for the visitors.
Paris didn’t give up and tried to cut the deficit in the fourth quarter, when it outscored Hamburg 17-12, but ultimately it was to no avail as the hosts grabbed a well-earned victory.