The Italian side allowed Hamburg back into the game but never lost control
Reyer downs feisty Hamburg 77-90 to remain in top form
Umana Reyer Venice continued its surge upwards in the standings in Group B with a 77-90 victory at Veolia Towers Hamburg. Reyer was cruising and built a 25-point lead early in the second half before Hamburg trimmed the gap to 9 points in the fourth quarter. But the visitors never gave up control and collected their sixth win in the last seven games for an 8-6 record.
Jordan Parks paced Reyer with 19 points and 7 rebounds, Kyle Wiltjer had 16 points and Mfiondu Kabengele added 11 points and 9 rebounds. Jordan Barnett and Brae Ivey both scored 16 points for Hamburg, which fell to 3-11 after having won three of its last four home games. With the loss, Hamburg has been eliminated from playoff contention.
Game Videos
Wiltjer scored 5 quick points for a 4-7 cushion for the visitors. Triples from Ivey and Osaro Rich had Hamburg up 10-9. The hosts’ offense dried up for 4 minutes and Wiltjer added a second triple in a 0-9 Reyer run for a 10-18 lead. Hamburg netted 5 points but then watched Reyer run off a 0-12 surge to go up 15-30 and the gap was 17-30 after 10 minutes.
Alessandro Lever started the second quarter with a triple for the visitors and the advantage grew to 17 points. Ivey tried to keep Hamburg within striking distance with 10 points but Davide Casarin’s three-pointer at the shot-clock buzzer made it 29-48. Wiltjer added another basket to extend the margin to 20 points and it was 36-57 at the break.
Parks twice made triples in the first half of the third quarter as Reyer’s cushion pushed out to 25 points. Hamburg was not ready to just roll over and mounted a 17-3 charge with Barnett draining 3 three-pointers to close within 63-74. The score was 65-76 after 30 minutes.
A Barnett dunk to start the final frame got the game into single digits and Hamburg three more times had the margin down to 9 points at 73-82 as Reyer could not put it away. Tyler Ennis drained a massive three-pointer to make it 73-87 with just more than 2 minutes to play and that proved to be the backbreaker.