Cluj shocks Venice on the road, 77-88

A 0-10 run in the last 3 minutes decided the game for Cluj

Regular Season

Round 15 of 18

game U-BT Cluj-Napoca vs Umana Reyer Venice

Group B

15 January 2025, 19:00

Regular Season

15 January 2025, 19:00

Regular Season

Umana Reyer Venice

URV

77

88

U-BT Cluj-Napoca

UBT

Final Score

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w

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U-BT Cluj-Napoca bounced back in style from its last home loss against Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem by pulling off a hard-fought win in Venice against Umana Reyer, 77-88, at the Palasport Taliercio on Wednesday night. Despite being ahead for 29 minutes, Cluj saw Venice tie the game entering the last period but managed to hold on and punished its opponent with a 0-10 run late in the game after the home team came within 77-78.

Zavier Simpson led all scorers with 25 points and also contributed 6 rebounds and 7 assists for a career-high PIR of 36. DJ Seeley followed with 16 points, Sasu Salin added 12, Mareks Mejeris chipped in 11 and Zach Hankins and Adam Makoka delivered 10 apiece for the winners. Tyler Ennis paced Reyer with 19 points of which 15 came in the first half. Mfiondu Kabengele recorded a double-double of 17 points and 10 boards, Jordan Parks scored 15 and Davide Moretti had 10 in the losing effort.

Seeley and Simpson run the show for the visitors early in the game. The former opened fire with back-to-back threes and the latter added a four-point play and an acrobatic layup to boost Cluj to a 2-12 lead after just 3 minutes. Reyer stopped the game, but had to wait until Xavier Munford took the court to see a reaction. Despite having missed all games since Round 1, he immediately delivered a three that Ennis followed with another two of his own to bring the hosts within 13-16. Cluj didn’t step back, though, and used a timeout to lock down on defense and keep the hosts scoreless for the next 4 minutes, during which they reconstructed a 14-22 advantage at the end of the first quarter.

Reyer kept struggling when the game resumed, unable to stop Hankins inside and allowing the Romanian backcourt to drive and score. As such, Cluj almost doubled the gap, making it 20-35 midway through the second quarter. Ennis came to the rescue for the home team, scoring 7 points in a row in less than 2 minutes to force a Cluj timeout with the score at 27-35. Kabengele shortened it even more with a baseline jumper, but the rally stopped when Seeley nailed a three and Makoka converted twice from the line to rebuild a double-digit lead, 29-40. A late layup by Mejeris, capping a superb ball movement by Cluj, closed the first half with the visitors ruling 29-42.

Kabengele stepped up right after the intermission, leading Reyer's offense with 6 consecutive points and securing the boards on both ends to reduce the gap to 35-42. Even though the visitors tried to slow down the hosts with a timeout, Reyer had already found its spark. Parks drilled a tough jumpshot, Seeley provided a layup and Kabengele kept delivering from the free throw line to make it a one-possession game, 44-46. Ennis evened things soon after, but Makoka, Mejeris and Salin showed up from deep with one triple each to abort the rally, 51-55. Cluj stopped a little bit when Hankins collected his third and a technical foul, as Wiltjer nailed his first three of the game to give Venice its first lead, 57-56, after 29 minutes. Amadeo Tessitori got the hosts even hotter with a three-point play, but Mejeris beat the shot-clock buzzer to close the third quarter with a 60-60 tie.

Mejeris inside and Simpson outside took the reins from Cluj entering the last stanza, allowing the visitors to regain a short advantage, 62-66. The hosts had Moretti as their main weapon, as he provided a couple of three-pointers to match the visitors’ offensive production. It wasn’t enough, though, because Seeley joined the party with a triple of his own and Simpson added a three-point play to cool it down, 70-76, with 6 minutes remaining. Reyer pushed inside with Kabengele once he got back on court, but cool-blooded Cluj responded to all comeback attempts. Salin hit from downtown to make it 77-81 when Reyer got within 1, as Simpson went again to the line to extend it to 77-83 entering clutch-time. Consecutive missed three-point attempts by Munford and Ennis allowed Salin to get another one and make it 77-86 soon after, good to seal the outcome and secure a tie-breaker advantage against Reyer.