The visiting team came up with clutch plays at both ends to grind out a precious road win
Downtown firepower and defensive steel carried Partizan at Virtus
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Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade kept its postseason bid on track with an industrious 71-81 win at Virtus Segafredo Bologna, as an unlikely hero turned up to join the usual suspects in a concerted team effort that forced the home team into submission on Wednesday.
Small forward Arijan Lakic racked up 6 rebounds and 2 steals to go with a mere 2 points against the Italian team, but the 25-year-old did so much more than meets the eye and the stats sheet to propel the Serbian team in a rugged and physical contest.
Lakic’s tireless hustle at both ends forced Virtus turnovers at key moments whenever the home team threatened to turn the game around, as he made life uncomfortable for the Italian side’s top performers all night in a cracking atmosphere.
Expectably, sharpshooter Sterling Brown provided the spark on offense with a game-high 20 points to go with 5 boards, sinking 4 of 5 from deep while Carlik Jones added 19 points as he once again pulled the strings in the opposition half of the court.
Having struggled early on, Tyrique Jones quickly found another gear to rack up 12 points and as many boards, delivering at both ends as he personified a defensive wall while doing so much damage on offense in the fourth quarter when Brown was kept scoreless.
Last but not least, there was Brandon Davies who chipped in with 11 points, including a clutch three-pointer which turned out to be a dagger into Virtus hearts after the Italian side had slashed the deficit to 65-69 in the closing stages of a pulsating matchup.
Brown, who’s been Partizan’s go-to man along with Carlik Jones throughout the season, heaped praise on the home team’s fighting spirit as well as on his own teammates.
“It was a fight and we needed this one,” Brown said in his postgame comments. “Tip my hat off to Virtus, they stayed in the game but we had some guys who came up with some big plays, especially on the defensive end.
“It was a full team effort as Lakic’s contribution was huge on defense and then Carlik finished the game off for us. We’ve got to keep building on this as we’ve got another big one [against AS Monaco] on Friday.”
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Coach Zeljko Obradovic was his usual temperamental self in demanding perfection from his team, having said that his outbursts during timeouts were necessary in order to root out any notion of complacency when Virtus came close to turning the game around.
“I am the coach and it’s my job to react,” said Obradovic. “We were up by 14 but then we committed some turnovers and Virtus is a good team that fights until the end so it was very tough just as we expected.
“They have a lot of quality inside and at the end of the day it’s a very important victory for us.”
The rock-solid support cast included Iffe Lundberg, who had 9 points and 6 assists, as well as Isaac Bonga who amassed 8 points and 5 rebounds as Partizan’s role players passed a stern test of their credentials with flying colors.