U18 ALBA Berlin collected its first victory at the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Ljubljana by coming back to defeat U18 Orange1 Bassano 78-74 and improve to 1-1 in Group B. After trailing by 14 points, ALBA kept BASSANO scoreless for more than 3 minutes in the fourth quarter and won the game thanks to a 60-46 rebound advantage including 27 offensive rebounds. Elias Rapieque and Nils Machowski both scored 17 points and Rikus Schulte picked up 16 points and 17 rebounds. The ANGT debutant BASSANO was led by Moussa Bamba with 17 points and 15 rebounds while Dame Sarr chipped in 11 points in the defeat.
ALBA rallies to beat BASSANO for first win
Game Report
2 Mins read
The game went back and forth in the beginning with Matteo Rinaldin converting a three-point play for BASSANO and Machowski hitting a three-pointer for ALBA, which led 7-6. Matteo Porto’s free throws gave BASSANO a 7-10 lead. Another Machowski triple put ALBA back ahead 14-12. The next few minutes saw five lead changes and three ties before Porto’s dunk had BASSANO ahead 20-23. The debutant was leading 22-25 after 10 minutes. The Italian side scored the first five points of the second quarter to open a 22-30 lead. ALBA stayed close with an 8-2 spurt to close within 30-32. BASSANO withstood the run and knocked down four triples to take a 32-46 lead. The German side scored the final seven points of the first half and was down 39-46 at the break.
BASSANO tallied the first four points of the second half to extend the lead to 39-50. ALBA refused to go away and Rapieque picked up four points to pull within 47-51. BASSANO twice extended the margin to eight points but Schulte made it 57-60 after 30 minutes. Schulte opened the fourth quarter to cut the gap to one point and Kaya Bayram gave ALBA the lead again with Berk Akin making it 66-62. BASSANO answered with the next five points to pull back ahead. Bamba converted two free throws and it was 68-69. BASSANO failed to score for the next 3 minutes and Rapieque scored four points as ALBA took a 75-69 lead. Bamba stopped the scoring drought and Sarr drained a three-pointer with 42 seconds left to cut the gap to 75-74. Machowski got a tip-in to fall with 21 seconds left and then after Bamba missed a three-pointer Linus Ruf split two free throws with 5.1 seconds to lock up the win.