Vince Hunter and his fellow big men set the tone for Boulogne Metropolitans 92 in its eighthfinals rout of Umana Reyer Venice.
Metropolitans harnessed ‘emotion’ against Reyer
Hunter shined with 14 points and 10 rebounds to lead the way and was joined by Tomer Ginat, Miralem Halilovic and Bandja Sy on a frontline that controlled the proceedings. Those four players combined for 38 points and 28 rebounds. Reyer’s entire team had 29 rebounds.
Among them, the player with the most EuroCup experience is Hunter. An All-EuroCup selection last season, Hunter delivered his fifth double-double of the current campaign and explained his motivation after the game.
“I was just trying to play with emotion. I know the tournament format is a little different this year, so one game, you’ve gotta come with that emotion, that fierceness, that power. And that’s what we did today,” Hunter said. “We played great defense. They only scored 66 points, so that’s good defense on us.”
Hunter dominated early with 6 points and 6 rebounds in the first quarter alone. He had two buckets on the offensive glass in the first quarter and another of his offensive rebounds led to a basket by Halilovic.
The play of the big men created problems for Reyer, which was without Austin Daye. Starting center Mitchell Watt fought foul trouble all game and committed his 5th late in the third quarter, fouling out after just 15 minutes on the court.
Hunter made it clear that he will put the team on his back in these big games and his goal is to improve on his performance from last season when he was ousted in the semifinals with Virtus Segafredo Bologna.
“I have a lot of motivation. I’ve been in this situation before, so I’m just trying to get it done this year,” he added. And all of his Metropolitans teammates are with him.