The Spanish side prevailed in a tense finish thanks to cool free-throw shooting
Joventut subdues Trefl, 73-78, clinching first road win
Game Report
3 Mins read
Joventut Badalona improved its BKT EuroCup Group A record to 2-1 after a scrappy 78-73 win at Trefl Sopot in Round 3, with Kassius Robertson leading the way for the Spanish side as he racked up 20 points and 6 assists.
Devon Dotson added 18 points and 6 boards for Joventut, Kaiser Gates chipped in with 14 points and Adam Hanga scored 12 to underline a fine team effort. At the other end, Tarik Phillip paced Trefl with a game-high 21 points and 12 rebounds and Andy Van Vliet added 15 points, but Trefl’s duo lacked support from their teammates.
Trefl, which dropped to 0-3, raced into an 11-4 advantage early on and led 18-13 in the closing stages of the first quarter, before Robertson sank a treble of three-pointers in a row to turn the tide. A tight battle followed, with the lead changing hands several times before Dotson gave the visitors a 37-40 halftime lead with a buzzer-beating triple off the glass from the halfway line.
Phillip, who scored 10 points in the opening half, kept firing on all cylinders at both ends in the third quarter while Robertson’s firepower dried up, allowing Trefl to conjure a 12-0 run and take its biggest lead of the game, 51-43.
It seemed the Polish side was on its way to grinding out a first regular season win but Dotson had other ideas, draining a long triple to complete a 4-15 run and once again turn the match on its head. Trefl then launched one last onslaught to lead 71-70 in the home straight but the hosts then ran out of steam, allowing Joventut to force the final twist.
Cool free-throw shooting in the final minute saw the visitors have the last laugh in a physical rollercoaster, and the outcome delighted Robertson, who was held to 5 points in the second half.
“My teammates picked me up in the second half and we did what we had to do,” he said in a courtside interview. “We got our first road win and it’s a big one for us. Our offensive rebounds late in the game were huge and we got some second chance point off them. Those are game breakers."
Joventut head coach Dani Miret was equally pleased. “It’s a great victory for us,” he said. “We have a lot of talented players but we are a new team and this kind of game will really help us improve. Our big guys struggled a little bit today, but in the end we hit some open shots. I am really happy the way we worked together.”
