Marcio Santos stood out with a double-double for the winners
Ulm tops Trento, 84-82, returns to winning way in return home
ratiopharm Ulm returned to its winning ways in its return home by fighting past Dolomiti Energia Trento 84-82 to snap a two-game losing streak. Ulm rallied from a 13-point deficit but wasted a 13-point late in the third quarter before holding to improve to 4-2 on the season.
Marcio Santos scored 23 points with 11 rebounds as well as the game-preserving defensive stop while Alfonso Plummer drained 6 three-pointers in scoring 21 points and Ben Saraf tallied 14 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists for the winners. Ulm played its first home game since beating Joventut Badalona on October 1 and had lost its last two games by allowing 107 and 125 points. Trento could not build on its surprise win over Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv last week in falling to 2-4. Anthony Lamb and Eigirdas Zukauskas both scored 17 points and Jordan Ford had 14 points in the loss.
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Trento took a 1-5 lead as Ulm needed nearly 3 minutes to score a basket. Ulm went ahead 18-14 after triples from Santos, Nelson Weidemann and Plummer. But Zukauskas and Ford connected from long range and the visitors led 18-20 after 10 minutes.
Trento’s defense stood strong in the early stages of the second quarter, giving up just one basket in the first 6 minutes while Myles Cale scored 4 points and Selom Mawugbe had a block and alley-oop dunk for a 20-33 cushion. Ulm responded with the next 11 points with Santos scoring 5 points and Plummer draining another triple in making it 31-33. Trento executed better in the final minute with 6 straight points for a 33-41 cushion at the break.
Plummer started the second half on fire with 4 three-pointers within 83 seconds in a personal 12-3 run to put Ulm ahead 45-44. The hosts just kept going and it was 55-46 after a Santos triple and Isaiah Roby three-point play. Zukauskas did his best to keep Trento close with 7 points, but Saraf completed a three-point play and Weidemann buried a three-pointer to increase the lead to 68-55 with just 86 seconds left in the third quarter. But Trento reeled off 9 straight points and was down 68-64 after 30 minutes.
Both teams struggled to execute offensively early in the final frame with Toto Forray and Saraf each hitting a triple for their side. Saraf’s three-point play made it 76-69 only to see Lamb score 11 straight points to put Trento ahead 78-80 with 2 minutes to play. Santos responded with a dunk and three-pointer and Ulm was ahead 83-80. Mawugbe scored but missed the bonus free throw while Saraf could only split two foul shots with 16 seconds left for an 84-82 score. Santos preserved the win by challenging Zukauskas's shot in the closing seconds.