The German side improved to a 5-2 record in the BKT EuroCup, while the visitors dropped to 2-5 after losing four straight.
Ulm relied on defense to control Buducnost
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ratiopharm Ulm bounced back from a defeat at U-BT Cluj-Napoca in Round 6 by securing a convincing 84-67 win against the visiting Buducnost VOLI Podgorica in Round 7 on Tuesday night.
Despite an amazing start from the perimeter in the first quarter, going 5-of-7 from behind the arc, Ulm reached halftime with the game tied, 37-37. After the break, it managed to take control of the game through defense, allowing only 22 points in the first 18 minutes of the second half.
“I think we were pretty good defensively in the second half,” Ulm head coach Anton Gavel stated in the press conference. “We applied pressure, especially we could stop the movement of [McKinley] Wright, his shooting and scoring ability. [Yoan] Makoundou hurt us big time in the first half, but I think we were better [against him] in the second half. We controlled the rebounds a little bit more and that was important.”
Quietening Buducnost’s weapons
Gavel’s insight can be easily proved by the numbers, as Buducnost’s leading scorer this season, Wright, finished with just 5 points on 2-of-9 from the field, 4 turnovers and a PIR of 3, having previously averaged 13 points and 14 in PIR coming into this game. And even though Makoundou was the game’s top scorer with 17 points, just 4 of them came in the second half. In fact, he could only score in the last period.
Overall, Ulm reduced Buducnost’s production in the second half with great authority, as the visitors recorded a below-par 6-of-16 on two-pointers (37.5%) and 4-of-13 from deep (30.7%), way lower than it had averaged so far. As a result, Buducnost couldn’t even reach the 70-point mark, registering its second-lowest score of the season after finishing with 63 points against Aris Midea Thessaloniki last week.
For Ulm, it was its best defensive performance after giving up 80 points against Dolomiti Energia Trento, 111 against Dreamland Gran Canaria, 74 against 7bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys, 78 against Turk Telekom Ankara, 103 against Slask Wroclaw and 86 against from U-BT Cluj-Napoca.