Paris bounced back in the second half to grab a comeback win against Virtus
Tough halftime talk flipped the switch as student and son beat the teacher in Bologna
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Regular Season
Round 26 of 34
Group Regular Season
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Friday night’s clash between Virtus Segafredo Bologna and Paris Basketball was something more than a game, it was an on-court reunion between two Turkish Airlines EuroLeague legends in Dusko Ivanovic and Tiago Splitter.
The two men coincided at Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz, where Ivanovic helped turn Splitter into one of the most dominant centers in Europe before he went on to become an NBA champion with the San Antonio Spurs.
Yet, that was not the only reunion happening at Virtus Segafredo Arena. Just before tipoff, Ivanovic went to the Paris bench to welcome the visiting staff. Among them, a certain Stefan Ivanovic, the son of Dusko, a former teammate of Splitter and current assistant to the Paris boss.
The two of them embraced in a heartfelt moment, but once the game started, none of this mattered.
Virtus imposed its style of play on the guests, who struggled to connect with the basket on offense. “Their defense was very aggressive,” Splitter admitted in the postgame press conference. “This Dusko type of defense was very aggressive and we were not able to handle that.”
Having kept Paris’s offense below 20 points in each of the first two quarters, Virtus took a 46-35 lead into the second half. The guests regrouped in the locker room, where a spark was needed to turn the tide.
“We had a tough talk at halftime,” TJ Shorts told EuroLeague TV. “We said we’ve got to look in a mirror, we’ve got to have some pride about ourselves. These teams in the EuroLeague are here to compete regardless of their record. Every game matters.”
Paris fought back and trimmed the deficit to 64-58 after 30 minutes. Yet, Virtus opened the fourth quarter with an 8-2 run to restore a 72-60 lead with 7:32 remaining. That’s when Paris’s flamboyant guard duo stepped up big time, with Nadir Hifi and Shorts scoring 12 and 6 points, respectively, to turn the game around.
Hifi finished the game with 23 points, going 3 for 4 from inside and 3 for 6 from beyond the arc in another extraordinary display.
“[Hifi] is a kid that sees the rim like a pool,” Splitter added. “Everything is an open shot for him. That’s the kind of confidence he has. Sometimes it's just what he does. He goes out there, dribble, dribble, dribble, step-back. It’s hard to even coach that, but you’re just going to give him the freedom to do that and slowly he’s finding his place in the EuroLeague.”
Meanwhile, Shorts pulled off another complete outing with 16 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds, 3 steals and 9 drawn fouls for a PIR of 33. He went 6 for 8 from the field and 4 for 4 from the line, leading Paris to a morale-boosting victory after losing a couple of days ago to Olympiacos Piraeus at home.
Despite Virtus’s poor record, the game was never supposed to be a walk in the park for Paris. Both Splitter and Stefan were aware that their side would struggle against a tenacious team coached by Ivanovic. Yet, in their first ever matchup as opposing coaches, student and son prevailed against their mentor.