London locks up playoff spot by beating Hamburg

History was made at Copperbox Arena where the London Lions clinched a spot in the 7DAYS EuroCup Playoffs from Group B by downing Veolia Towers Hamburg 83-66 on Wednesday. London snapped a three-game home losing streak and improved to 6-8 in the standings. It was its second win against Hamburg and therefore earned it the head-to-head tiebreaker between them. Hamburg dropped to 4-10 and eighth place in Group B.
Kostas Koufos paced the winners with 17 points on 8-of-10 two-point shooting plus 11 rebounds. Sam Dekker added 15 points while Luke Nelson and Meye Oni each had 14 for London, which dominated the glass 44-32. Yoeli Childs led Hamburg with 14 points and James Woodard and Kendale McCullum each added 10 for the visitors.
Dekker and Koufos had 4 points each to give London an early 10-6 lead. Christoph Phillips struck from downtown and McCullum's layup gave Hamburg a 10-11 edge. Nelson and an unstoppable Dekker helped London take charge, 19-16, after 10 minutes.
Koufos scored twice in the paint and Dekker added a fastbreak basket in a 10-0 run that Oni capped with an alley-oop layup for a 29-19 London lead. Seth Heinrich brought Hamburg within 31-28 but Dekker and Vojtech Hurban fueled a 10-0 run that helped London to a 42-30 lead at halftime.
Game Videos
Koufos scored twice around the basket and Dekker buried a three-pointer to boost the hosts' lead to 50-36 soon after the break. McCullum and Woodard tried to change things for Hamburg and Heinrichs made a triple for a 54-44 deficit. Tomislav Zubcic answered from downtown and got help from Hruban to keep London out of trouble, 62-51, after 30 minutes.
Nelson buried back-to-back three-pointers to break the game open, 68-51, early in the fourth quarter. Litte changed after that, as London boosted its margin to 76-56 and cruised to a well-deserved and historic victory.