He was ready to shine on a court where he had struggled in the past
Adam Mokoka turns Ulm nightmare into a dream performance
Izveštaji utakmica
3 Min čitanja
Regular Season
Round 7 of 18
Regular Season
group b
ratiopharm ulmULM
6496
Cosea JL Bourg-en-BresseJLB
group b
Overview
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Cosea JL Bourg-en-Bresse earned its third road win of the season on Tuesday night, defeating ratiopharm ulm 64–96 in Round 7 to improve to 6–1 in Group B. Adam Mokoka made sure his return to Ratiopharm Arena ended with the same team result as his previous visit – but with a completely different individual performance.
The last time he played in Ulm, on January 17, 2024, while with U-BT Cluj-Napoca, nothing went right for him. He missed all five of his shots, committed a turnover and a foul, and had two of his attempts blocked, finishing with a PIR of -9 in under 12 minutes. Despite his struggles, Cluj still won the game 81–85, thanks to 27 points from club legend Patrick Richard.
Cluj didn’t return to Ulm for the 2024–25 campaign, but Mokoka did – this time with Bourg, having joined the team this past summer. When the schedule was released, he probably circled this date in red.
Mokoka made an immediate impact, finding Kevin Kokila for a backdoor layup and adding a dunk during an early 0–9 run. He later finished a fast-break layup to make it 7–15, flexing his biceps as Ulm called a timeout. You could tell that his previous Ulm performance was still in the back of his mind, and this time his energy was contagious. Both Gach and Antony Labanca hit twice from downtown, and Darius McGhee buried a long three-pointer from the EuroCup logo to give Bourg a 17–28 lead after 10 minutes.
Ulm managed to cut the deficit to 31–32 midway through the second quarter before Mokoka returned after a long rest. Once again, he brought the spark—drawing four fouls in as many minutes, assisting Gach on a fast-break layup, and nailing a step-back triple to restore a 42–50 Bourg advantage. At halftime, Mokoka led all players with 13 points and a PIR of 17.
Mokoka kept showcasing his trademark energy and athleticism in the second half, continuing to draw fouls and thrilling the crowd with a fast-break slam followed by a step-back corner three at the buzzer. Bourg’s defense did the rest, holding Ulm scoreless for over six minutes. By the end of the third quarter, Bourg led 47–64 and was well on its way to a big road victory.
Mokoka finished with 23 points on a perfect 5-for-5 from two-point range and 2-for-3 from beyond the arc, plus five assists and a PIR of 32 – a new career high. In back-to-back visits to Ratiopharm Arena, he went from a career-worst PIR of -9 to a career-best 32.
“We just wanted to make sure we earned respect in this competition against a good team,” Mokoka said. “I’m glad we held them to 64 points and shared the ball to score 96. We just tried to raise our intensity and energy even more in the third quarter and make sure we kept them below what we scored in the first half.”
Bourg outscored Ulm 46–22 in the second half. No other team had ever managed such a dominant second half in Ulm’s long EuroCup history – the previous record deficit was 21 points (28–49) against Valencia Basket on January 12, 2022.
Bourg shot an incredible 81.5% from inside the arc, hitting 22 of 27 two-point attempts. That shattered the club’s previous record of 73.0% (set against Umana Reyer Venice on January 17, 2023) and ranks as the seventh-best mark in EuroCup history. The all-time record belongs to Valencia Basket, which made 21 of 24 two-pointers (87.5%) against Turk Telekom Ankara on November 14, 2018.
