Turk Telekom Ankara celebrated its first road win in Group A by defeating host Dolomiti Energia Trento 70-76 on Tuesday. Turk Telekom improved to 4-3, three victories better than any of the three teams behind it in Group B entering Round 7. One of those Trento, which fell to 1-6. Trento never trailed in the game and led by as much as 13 points in the third quarter, but still had to shake off a Trento charge in the final 5 minutes to prevail. 

Turk Telekom wins in Trento, 70-76

Aubrey Dawkins had 15 points for the winners, while JaJuan Johnson added 12, Dorukhan Engindeniz 11 and Can Ogut 10 plus 6 assists. For Trento, Cameron Reynolds had 21 points while Jordan Caroline had 20 points and 12 rebounds. 

Key performer: Felicio set the tone for Ulm

Felicio scored the first 7 points of the night and had 18 points in 16 first-half minutes. He did it on 8-for-9 two-point shooting, too, leading Ulm in building an 18-point second-quarter margin. Felicio finished with 20 points and also pulled down 10 rebounds, including 6 on the offensive glass. Ulm had 18 offensive boards and outrebounded the visitors 39-28.

ratiopharm Ulm v Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse (2021-12-14T18:30:00.000Z)

Cristiano Felicio- ratioharm Ulm (photo Larry Langer - Ulm) - EC21

This is what the protagonists of the game had to say after such a close deal down the stretch.

Post-Game Quotes: Ulm 96-86 Bourg


### Jaka Lakovic, ratiopharm Ulm
"I would like to congratulate the players. After a tough game in the German League against Hamburg Towers, it is not easy to prepare in 48 hours. But they had a great effort, great intensity during the whole game. A couple of mistakes against their pressing made the game a little bit interesting in the end, but I think our team deserved the win and I am very happy for that. From the beginning, we came out and defended well. We hung on to that lead the entire game and kept defending. We found good solutions on offense with fast and effective ball movement. I am satisfied with a win. Yes, we could have won with a bigger margin, but this is still a team in the process of getting where we want to be."



### Laurent Legname, Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse
"It was a long game for us. We played without two big men and it is really tough to win here like that. We tried many different ways to defend, double-teaming the big guy, but they scored against that. We were not aggressive enough, not intense enough on defense. You cannot win like that, you cannot hope to win like that when you allow 96 points. You never have a chance to win on the road. We had these problems on defense the entire game. Even though we played good basketball on offense, the problem every time was our defense. I tried to zone-press, many different situations, pick-and-roll defense, but it was too tough for us tonight."



### Sindarius Thornwell, ratiopharm Ulm
"I think we came in focused on the game plan. We had a detailed game plan how to attack their defense and how they are going to attack us. I think we just executed it, did what we were supposed to do. We kept our energy and our effort up and that's the only thing you can control, your energy and your effort. You don't control misses and makes. You can just tell we are moving the ball because every game is someone else having a good game. We are moving the ball and executing what the coaches got within the team. Nobody is hunting shots, everybody is in the right places and letting the game just come to them and not forcing anything. When you got it like that, there is no pressure on your shot because you know you did the right thing."


### Thomas Klepeisz, ratiopharm Ulm
"I think especially with Sindarius [Thornwell] we now play with more confidence and higher intensity on defense. We get stops, move the ball to find an open teammate and that’s how we get it going. It has been a lot of fun how we perform as a team lately."


Rasheed Sulaimon - Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse (photo Larry Langer - Ulm) - EC21

From the moment he scored the game's first basket, center JaJuan Johnson was everywhere for Turk Telekom Ankara in Trento. He would finish as the second leading scorer for the winners, with 12 points on 6-for-10 two-point shooting while leading Turk Telekom with 9 rebounds and 3 blocks. 

Pivotal performer: An ex-champ led Turk Telecom

All of it seemed to come in timely fashion for Johnson, a veteran whose resume includes EuroCup title with another Turkish club, Darussafaka Istanbul, in 2018. He finished with a team-high PIR of 19 in more than 27 minutes to lead Turk Telekom to victory.

JaJuan Johnson 2- Turk Telekom Ankara (photo Trento) - EC21

Despite his team's home loss to Turk Telekom Ankara on Tuesday, Dolomiti Energia Trento forward Jordan Caroline continued to impress in his debut 7DAYS EuroCup season. Caroline started slow but soon was piling up big numbers, finishing with 20 points and 12 rebounds for his third double-double in six starts, tying all EuroCup players with as many games. 

Caroline gave Trento a chance

He finished with his second PIR of 31 this season. Only three other players have surpassed a 30 PIR twice so far this season. Among his rebounds were 7 of his own team's misses, matching the single-game high in the EuroCup season in offensive boards, in which he is now the competition leader at 3.7 per game.

Jordan Caroline - Dolomiti Energia Trento (photo Fedor Aebor - Lokomotiv) - EC21

Turk Telekom Ankara is going to be happy to see any trips to Trento in its future. Tuesday's winners got their first road win of the 7DAYS EuroCup Regular Season in the same city where they got their last one, more than three years ago. Indeed, Turk Telekom now has a 3-0 record all-time vs. Trento after sweeping their first two meetings ever in the 2018-19 regular season. 

Turk Telekom likes it in Trento

That time, Turk Telekom registered its first EuroCup win of any kind in almost a decade in Trento, but didn't win on the road again that season. This time, the visitors had not won away from Ankara this season until Tuesday. In fact, you would have to go all the way back to 2010 to find another team not named Trento that Turk Telekom has beaten on the road in the EuroCup.

JaJuan Johnson - Turk Telekom Ankara (photo Trento) - EC21

ratiopharm Ulm knocked down a season-high 15 three-point shots to run past the visiting Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse 96-86 on Tuesday night. The win lifted Ulm's record to 4-3 in Group B while Bourg dropped to 2-5. 

Ulm hits 15 threes, runs past Bourg, 96-86

Ulm pulled away to a double-digit margin in the first half behind Cristiano Felicio and Sindarius Thornwell, then never allowed Bourg to get closer than 7 points in the second half. Thornwell netted 23 points on 6-for-9 three-point shooting and Felicio collected 20 points and 10 rebounds. Semaj Christon had 13 points and 10 assists while Thomas Kleipesz added 13 and 6, respectively, for the winners. Fedor Zugic also scored in double figures for Ulm with 10 points in 13 minutes. Calvin Harris and Rasheed Sulaimon each scored 24 for Bourg. Pierre Pelos had 12 and Maxime Courby netted 11 in a losing effort.

Felicio scored Ulm's first 7 points and Sulaimon Bourg's first 6 before Axel Julien's three-pointer gave Bourg a 7-9 advantage. Thornwell knocked down a three in response and followed it with another one. Klepeisz and Philipp Herkenhoff followed their teammate from downtown to suddenly open a 19-9 Ulm lead. Pelos made a nifty move inside to snap Ulm's 12-0 run, but Felicio's three-point play and a fastbreak layup from Zugic helped extend the margin to 26-11. The hosts held 28-16 after 10 minutes, but Pelos hit a three-pointer as Harris fueled a 0-9 run to cut the difference to 28-25. After a timeout, however, Ulm re-took control. Christon hit a three-pointer and fed Felicio for an alley-oop dunk. Thornwell had another three and Felicio a pair of baskets inside to open a 42-25 lead. Alexandre Chassang snapped Ulm's 14-0 burst from deep, but back-to-back triples from Thornwell and Herkenhoff soon brought the hosts to a 50-36 halftime lead.

Jaron Blossomgame had a three-point play and an alley-oop dunk for Ulm after the break, but Harris scored 8 unanswered points for Bourg to cut the margin to 55-47. Maxime Courby's triple got Bourg within 57-50, but Klepeisz answered with a triple and a four-point play to re-open a 14-point lead, 64-50. Sulaimon had a three-point play that Thornwell answered with 8 consecutive points, including a pair of triples, to send Ulm's lead soaring to 72-53. Courby hit a three-pointer for the visitors to close the third quarter, but Zugic knocked down a three to open the fourth. Sulaimon and Harris each had a jumper and a layup for the visitors, and Courby's triple made it 85-74 midway through the final quarter, but Ulm still cruised to victory.

Sindarius Thornwell - ratioharm Ulm (photo Larry Langer - Ulm) - EC21

After netting 17 points in his EuroCup debut last week in a road win at Gran Canaria, Sindarius Thornwell doubled up with another stellar performance for Ulm. He netted 4 of 5 three-pointers in the first half against Bourg, scoring 14 points before halftime, then made 2 of 4 in the second half to finish with team-high 23 points. 

Ulm's offense clicked without top scorers

Thornwell and Cristiano Felicio combined for 32 points of Ulm's 50 points at the break. What was unusual is that Ulm scored those 50 points despite their top three scorers entering this game – Semaj Christon, Jaron Blossomgame and Thomas Klepeisz – combining for just 8 points in the first half. It was a result of a great ball movement (15 assists) as well as 8-for-15 three-point shooting in the first two quarters.

Jaron Blossomgame- ratioharm Ulm (photo Larry Langer - Ulm) - EC21

Lietkabelis Panevezys ranks second in offensive rebounding (12.0 orpg.) and is sixth in two-point shooting percentage (55.3%) this season.

Keys to victory: Andorra vs. Lietkabelis

It needs that kind of effectiveness against a physical team like MoraBanc Andorra. Nikola Radicevic comes off his best game of the season (12 points, 9 assists, 21 PIR against Joventut) and must set the right game tempo against Clevin Hannah and Codi Miller McIntyre. Andorra leads the competition in blocked shots (4.2 bpg.) and relies on a deep frontcourt led by Moussa Diagne, Amine Noua and Babatunde Olumuyiya to make the difference in the paint. Defensive rebounds could be critical for the hosts to get going in transition and make the most out of their athleticism.

MoraBanc Andorra v Lietkabelis Panevezys (2021-12-14T19:00:00.000Z)

Oriol Pauli - MoraBanc Andorra (photo Martin Imatge - Andorra) - EC21