Dusan Alimpijevic's men improved to 7-0 in front of their home fans
Besiktas answers doubts, snaps two-game skid to stay perfect at home
Game Report
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 13 of 18
Regular Season
group b
Besiktas GAIN IstanbulBJK
9776
ratiopharm ulmULM
group b
Overview
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Besiktas GAIN Istanbul remained the only undefeated home team in the BKT EuroCup, improving to a perfect 7-0 at Besiktas Akatlar Sports & Events Hall, by overpowering undermanned ratiopharm ulm to stop a two-game losing streak and stay in the hunt for a top-two spot in Group B.
Besiktas had a balanced effort on offense with five players in double figures to go with 28 assists in a comfortable 97-76 win for a 9-4 overall record.
“I am very happy with the win, especially this win and how we did it,” said Besiktas head coach Dusan Alimpijevic, whose team had lost road games to the London Lions and NINERS Chemnitz in the last two rounds.
The Serbian coach definitely could be happy about how his defense played compared to the two losses, having given up 98 and 97 points in those games. Besiktas held Ulm to just 6 three-pointers on 26.1% shooting. The hosts came into the game ranked 19th in opponents three-point shooting at 37.6% and Ulm’s offense ranked 4th in long range shooting at 37.8%.
Vitto Brown led the way with 23 points while Jonah Mathews scored 18 points, Anthony Brown had 17 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, Brynton Lemar tallied 13 points and Ante Zizic added 10 points and 11 rebounds.
After a tight game with eight lead changes and Ulm leading 32-36 midway through the second quarter, Mathews scored 10 straight points in a 13-0 run to lead 47-38 at the break.
Besiktas opened the second half with an 8-2 spurt to lead 55-40 and never saw the advantage drop below 11 points the rest of the way – twice coming up with defensive stops in the fourth quarter when Ulm could have made it a single-digit game.
“We played a pretty good game aside from the first quarter, which is normal. We played an amazing three quarters,” said Alimpijevic, who also expressed his satisfaction of grabbing 13 offensive rebounds.
“It was big for us. We lost our last two EuroCup games so we knew we had to come out here, play tough and make a statement. And I think we did a good job of that,” Brown said.
Ulm came to Istanbul with only 10 players and really could not match Besiktas’s depth. Chris Ledlum scored 17 points, Tobias Jensen had 15 points and Mark Smith added 13 points, but those efforts were not enough.
“They are undefeated at home in the EuroCup. I think our players competed. I am proud of our guys. We are a little undermanned at the moment but that is a very good basketball team and they showed it today. They handled the rebounds, especially the offensive rebounds. They shot the ball well,” Ulm head coach Ty Harrelson said.
“We lost the game in the second quarter. We got dominated on offensive rebounds and we couldn’t find ways to score. That was the main difference in the game.”
