The big man shone bright in the fourth quarter
Bahcesehir gets back on track with balance, big plays from Koprivica
Izveštaji utakmica
3 Min čitanja
Regular Season
Round 7 of 18
Regular Season
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Aris Thessaloniki BetssonARI
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Bahcesehir College IstanbulBKS
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Overview
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Bahcesehir College Istanbul got back on track in the BKT EuroCup with a strong team effort in a tough back-and-forth battle at Aris Thessaloniki Betsson with big man Balsa Koprivica making a major difference in the victory.
A week after suffering its first loss of the season, Marko Barac’s team survived 15 lead changes and 11 ties to win 76-86 on the road to improve to 6-1 record atop Group A.
“Every away game in EuroCup is difficult and every victory is valuable. We found a way to do better defensively, especially individually and made some open shots,” Barac said afterwards.
While Matthew Mitchell scored a team-high 16 points for Bahcesehir, Tyler Cavanaugh collected 14 points and 8 rebounds for the winners.
“It’s huge. We lost last week, so we wanted to get back on track. This competition is tough and you have to respond quickly to stay in the lead,” said Cavanaugh.
“I am just happy with the way that we battled. It was a full team effort. We didn’t shoot the ball well at all, but we stepped up and made huge plays.”
The veteran Cavanaugh also wanted to highlight the performance of big man Balsa Koprivica, who produced a loud stat line of 8 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 4 blocks despite battling foul trouble.
“Balsa Koprivica made a lot of big plays down the stretch to help us,” Cavanaugh said.
It was one of the best games this season for the 25-year-old Serbian, who came over to the Turkish side after spending the last four seasons with Partizan Belgrade. Koprivica appeared in 36 games in the EuroLeague in that time.
He played a season-high 21 minutes against Aris and the 8 points came after totaling 15 in the last four games. He threw down four big highlight dunks along the way - three of them coming in the fourth quarter.
Koprivica was also a massive presence in the paint defensively. His 4 blocks - 2 of them in the final stanza - set a new personal EuroCup record and evened his EuroLeague-high four swats against LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne on December 17, 2024.
Aris is still adjusting to new head coach Igor Milicic, who helped the team snap a three-game losing streak with a victory last week but is now 3-4,
“Any loss is very bad and heartbreaking, but we have to look at what we did well. Some things we have to improve are second-half rebounding. Offensive rebounds are killing us. And we couldn’t keep up with the physicality that they presented,” said Milicic, who saw Bryce Jones lead the way with 16 points.
“I am satisfied with the effort. We gave what we have. We are moving in the right direction.”
Bahcesehir is definitely in the right direction with high expectations, and Barac knows that coming to Thessaloniki and getting a victory there was a big deal.
“I have to praise my players for playing with 22 assists to a small number of turnovers (12). It was a very good team effort on a very difficult court,” the coach said.
