Ty Harrelson's men suffered a deflating weekend defeat in Germany but turned those lessons into a historic night
Ulm carried lessons learned from domestic league loss to record-setting win
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ratiopharm Ulm fans had to be thinking, ‘Oh, no. Not again’ after wasting a commanding lead in a big game and ending up losing. But the German side took the lessons it learned from a disappointing domestic league loss on Saturday and turned them into a record-setting performance in the BKT EuroCup.
Ulm torched Wolves Twinsbet Vilnius 114-91 for its fourth straight win as well as a new single-game club scoring record, topping the 110 points the team scored against JL Bourg en Bresse almost exactly two years ago.
“We played two quarters of good defense - in the first and third periods - and we had six players in double figures and we had 22 assists and 12 turnovers. That is pretty good,” said Ulm coach Ty Harrelson. “It’s nice to get a sweep of a quality team like Wolves.”
Ulm came into the home contest with a three-game winning streak in the EuroCup, but Harrelson’s men surrendered a 19-point third-quarter lead in a matchup of first- and second-place teams against MLP Academics Heidelberg and ended up losing 67-69 at home to give up first place in the standings.
Ulm raced out to a 25-point lead against Wolves (45-20) after just 13 minutes of action. The guests fought back into the game and even trimmed the gap to 59-51 early in the second half. But Ulm would not lose another important game in the same manner and regained control with a 22-2 run.
“Being in that situation in back-to-back games where we have big leads in the first half and then a run right before the halftime, I like to think we learned a little bit of a lesson. You can’t expect to win against teams at this level without playing for 40 minutes,” Harrelson said.
“Everything was there. We got back on track. We had a bad half in our last game and our guys definitely wanted to finish it today. I am really proud of them.”
One of the top performers against Wolves was Brazilian big man Marcio Santos, who started off hot with 10 of the team’s first 19 points. He ended with a team-high 20 points including 3 of 3 on three-pointers.
“They are different leagues but the other one [the loss against Heidelberg] hurt because it was for first place. Today we brought the energy, that excitement for the game and this was the result,” Santos said.
Ulm has scored 100+ points in back-to-back EuroCup games and is ready to show it can challenge for the crown – especially after its disappointment over the weekend.