Grant's effort worthy of the history books
Jerian Grant controlled the pace and kept the opposition on its heels for long stretches of Turk Telekom Ankara's come-from-behind 86-76 victory over ratiopharm Ulm on Wednesday night. The weapon he used most was his ability to draw fouls.
Grant drew 13 fouls, which was one off the competition record and the most ever this late in the season. Four players in competition history have drawn 14 fouls in a game, most recently Matt Walsh for Spirou Charleroi in December 2012. Grant became the ninth player to draw 13, which had been last accomplished by Erick McCollum in January of last season for Lokomotiv Kuban. But no player had ever done so in an elimination round game.
He turned those fouls drawn into 14 free throw attempts, of which he made 12. The 14 attempts are tied with Marco Belinelli (Virtus Segafredo Bologna, March 2021) for the fifth most in a quarterfinals game. Reggie Freeman set the record with 17 for (FMP Belgrade in March 2003.
The 12 made foul shots are tied with Freeman from the aforementioned game and Dmitry Kulagin (Lokomotiv, March 2018) for the third most ever in the quarters. McCollum holds that record with 15 for Lokomotiv in March 2019.
Grant finished the game with 20 points and 7 assists for a performance index rating, which was also a career high. He is now ranked second in the EuroCup this season with 5.6 fouls drawn per game.