The win keeps Bahcesehir atop Group A
Bahcesehir comes up with big plays to fight past Ulm, grab fifth straight victory
Bahcesehir College Istanbul remained in sole possession of first place in Group A as it fought past ratiopharm Ulm 72-80 on the road for a fifth straight victory. The Turkish team decided the game with bigger plays down the stretch to improve to 7-1 heading into the national team break.
Sehmus Hazer paced Bahcesehir with 20 points, 5 assists and 4 steals, Tai Odiase scored 14 points, Mateusz Ponitka flirted with a triple-double in collecting 12 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists and Marko Simonovic added 11 points and 5 rebounds.
Ulm dropped to 4-4 with its first home loss of the season and fourth defeat in the last five games. Alfonso Plummer drained 4 three-pointers in scoring 18 points while Justinian Jessup had 13 points and Ben Saraf chipped in 10 points and 4 assists.
Game Videos
The first quarter was not very high scoring with Ulm’s Karim Jallow and Hazer both netting 4 points as the hosts led 9-7. Bahcesehir temporarily took the lead, but then was held scoreless for nearly 3 minutes as Noa Essengue scored 5 points to help Ulm pull ahead 16-10. The score was 16-13 after 10 minutes.
Bahcesehir trimmed the gap to 16-15 to start the second quarter only to see Philipp Herkenhoff drain 2 triples and Plummer also hit from deep to push Ulm ahead 25-17. Ponitka started taking over for the visitors with 7 points to get the game even at 30-30. Hazer tallied 4 points as Bahcesehir finished the first half stronger to lead 36-41 at the break.
Hazer scored 4 quick points early in the second half to give Bahcesehir its biggest lead of the game, 38-45. Jessup had 4 points at the other end but the home side could not get the gap closer than 5 points before Bahcesehir led 45-52. Another Plummer triple got the home side to within 52-54 and it was 52-56 after 30 minutes.
Ulm tied the game again 58-58 after yet another three-pointer from Plummer and Marcio Santos’s three-point play. Simonovic began taking over with 7 points as Bahcesehir went up 62-69. Ulm three times managed to get the deficit to 3 points but the visitors showed their big-game experience with Jaleen Smith hitting a big layup for a 70-77 lead with 89 seconds to go.