Broekhoff joins red-hot Madgen in next stage of EuroCup
Ryan Broekhoff and Lokomotiv Kuban joined Ben Madgen and Lietkabelis into the next stage of EuroCup, while Brock Motum was his usual consistent self in another Zalgiris win.
Round 10 of the Euroleague saw Zalgiris Kaunas taking on Crvena Zvezda Belgrade. Coming out of the gates, Zalgiris looked to be the stronger team as they jumped out to a 24-16 lead. However Crvena Belgrade came back with a nice showing themselves, allowing them to go into halftime up 44-42.
In the second half both teams continued battling it out, but in the end, Zalgiris would get the upper hand thanks to a strong final quarter of play to prevail 88-79. Brock Motum had a nice game despite seeing a limited amount of playing time (15 minutes). He scored 9 points, hauled in 2 rebounds and got his hands on one steal, while shooting a stellar 4/6 from the field.
With their first road win of the competition, Zalgiris improved their record to 4-6 ahead of next weeks' game against Spanish heavyweights Real Madrid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVpSs620H7E
Lietkabelis Panevezys took on Russian club Nizhny Novgorod in what was a back and forth affair for much of the night. Both teams didn’t let up all game as they continued trading leads through the first three-quarters of play. Nizhny would lead by 1 (67-66) heading into the final period, and while Lietkabelis would fight all the way, their Russian adversary would hold on for a 91-89 victory.
Despite the loss, Ben Madgen had himself one of his best games in the EuroCup. He scored a team-high 20 points while shooting an efficient 7-12 from the field and 5/6 from the free-throw line. But Madgen’s scoring wasn’t the only thing on display, as he did a nice job crashing the glass (6 rebounds) and also finding his teammates for easy looks (3 assists).
Lietkabelis had already qualified for the next EuroCup stage, although it was a result they would rather reverse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mxXtzt4HkY
Ryan Broekhoff was a beast on the offensive glass all game in hauling down a team-high 4 offensive rebounds on the night (7 rebounds overall), while scoring 7 points and dishing out 3 assists in 22 minutes of action. Broekhoff’s high motor and tenacious energy on glass, and the defensive side of the floor was a tone setter for the team. However despite his best efforts, they still weren’t able to come out on top due to the teams’ porous defense.
They just couldn’t contain opposing guard Chris Babb, as he went off in the fourth-quarter in scoring 10 points for the period. He would connect on a three-pointer with 5 seconds left to force extra time. From there Lokomotiv Kuban had no answer to stopping Ratiopharm Ulm who prevailed in a thrilling 105-101 win.
Despite the loss, Lokomotiv managed to still progress to the next round thanks to Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem's win over Union Olimpija Ljubljana.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UYPGZHoGSA