2018-19Regular SeasonRound 10
December 19, 2018 CET: 18:00
Local time: 20:00 SINAN ERDEM SPORTS HALL.

Zvezda tops Galatasaray to finish third in Group A

Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade finished the 7DAYS EuroCup Regular Season in style by topping Galatasaray Odeabank Istanbul 83-100 on the road in Group A on Wednesday. Zvezda finished third in Group A with a 6-4 record and will compete in Top 16 Group G, led by Spanish powerhouses Valencia Basket and Unicaja Malaga. Galatasaray, which was already eliminated before this game, finished its EuroCup season with a 3-7 record. Billy Baron led the winners with 20 points. Joe Ragland added 18, Borisa Simanic had 17 and Stratos Perperoglou 10 for Zvezda. Nigel Hayes paced Galatasaray with 30 points, Tai Webster added 14 and Zach Auguste 12.

A backdoor layup by Goksenin Koksal and a three-pointer by Hayes gave Galatasaray an early 5-2 lead. Simanic hit a triple, but Hayes kept pushing the hosts and a dunk-and-foul by Zach Auguste helped Galatasaray to a 12-9 edge. Ragland stepped up for Zvezda and Baron followed a jumper with a bomb from downtown to tie it at 18-18. Webster sank a three-pointer and Hayes added a layup-plus-foul to give Galatasaray a 26-24 lead after 10 minutes. Nemanja Nenadic and Maik Zirbes fueled a 0-6 run that gave Zvezda its first lead, 26-30, early in the second quarter. Marko Arapovic took over with a three-point play and Simanic, Koksal and Aaron Harrison each struck from beyond the arc. Baron drilled a pair of threes for a 35-39 Zvezda lead. Simanic and Branzo Lazic joined the three-point shootout to force the hosts to stop the game at 38-45. Michael Ojo followed free throws with a put-back layup to keep Zvezda fully in charge, 42-49, at halftime. A layup-plus-foul by Ragland and back-to-back triples by Simanic gave the visitors their first double-digit lead, 45-58, soon after the break. Auguste and Hayes tried to change things for Galatasaray, causing Zvezda to call timeout at 52-60. Baron silenced the crowd with consecutive three-pointers and Marko Keselj added a long jumper for a 57-70 Zvezda margin. Hayes remained unstoppable and single-handedly kept Galatasaray in the game, 65-72. Perperoglou and Keselj set a 68-79 Zvezda margin after 30 minutes. Arapovic took over early in the fourth quarter and drew Galatasaray within 74-83 with seven minutes left. Perperoglou buried a three-pointer, Ojo added free throws and a driving layup by Ragland made it 74-90 with over 4 minutes remaining to all but ice the win.

Pivotal performer

Baron had a near-perfect shooting performance and was strong all game long. He had 20 points, hitting 5 of 6 three-point shots and added 2 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal and 6 fouls drawn for a performance index rating of 28 - a new season high for him.

Game-changing moment

A rain of three-pointers late in the first half gave Zvezda the lead for good. Baron and Simanic hit two apiece and Lazic added another one for a 38-45 margin. Zvezda did not trail after that, keeping full control of the game until the final buzzer.

Stellar stat

Zvezda pulled down 11 offensive rebounds and had 13 turnovers. Galatasaray had 7 offensive rebounds and 19 turnovers. Those 10 extra possessions allowed a more focused Zvezda to dominate the game.

Did you notice?

Joe Ragland set a new career-high mark in assists with 12. His previous record was 10 against Germani Brescia Leonessa a week ago. It was also the most assists ever by a Zvezda player in the EuroCup: DeMarcus Nelson previously had the record with 11 against Panionios on January 22, 2014.

Joe Ragland - Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade (photo Galatasaray) - EC18
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Eurocupbasketball.com
Referees: PANTHER, ANNE; HALLIKO, AARE; ROSSI, MICHELE
Attendance: 1702
By Quarter1234
Galatasaray Istanbul26162615
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade24253021
End of Quarter1234
Galatasaray Istanbul26426883
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade244979100
Galatasaray Istanbul
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 WEBSTER, TAI 23:35 14 2/5 3/6 1/1 1   1 7   1   1     14
2 HARRISON, AARON 28:08 3 0/3 1/3   1 3 4 5 1 2     2 1 5
3 ARAPOVIC, MARKO 17:02 9 4/7   1/1         1     1 2 3 7
7 HAYES-DAVIS, NIGEL 26:18 30 6/8 4/5 6/6 1   1 2   1     3 5 31
8 KORKMAZ, CAN 4:51     0/1         1   1     1   -2
11 ARAR, EGE 8:44 2 1/2     1 2 3           2 1 3
12 ERDENIZ, CANER 6:13               1         2   -1
15 CINKO, EROLCAN 8:15     0/1             1     2   -4
22 OLMAZ, AYBERK 8:01   0/1 0/1                       -2
24 KLOBUCAR, JAKA 20:47 4 1/2 0/2 2/3   2 2 1 2 3 1   3 2 2
30 AUGUSTE, ZACH 24:00 12 5/6   2/2   4 4 1 1 7     1 3 12
61 KOKSAL, GOKSENIN 24:06 9 3/4 1/1     4 4 3 1 2   1 2 2 13
Team           3 1 4     1         3
Totals 200:00 83 22/38 9/20 12/13 7 16 23 21 6 19 1 3 20 17 81
        57.9% 45% 92.3%
Head coach: ERDOGAN, ERTUGRUL
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 RAGLAND, JOE 27:21 18 6/7 0/3 6/7 1 3 4 12 2 2     2 4 31
3 COVIC, FILIP DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
4 KESELJ, MARKO 14:27 7 2/2 1/2         1         2 1 6
5 PERPEROGLOU, STRATOS 17:56 10 2/3 2/3   1   1 1 1       1 3 13
7 DAVIDOVAC, DEJAN 14:22     0/3     1 1 1   1     3   -5
9 NENADIC, NEMANJA 12:39 7 3/5   1/2 3 1 4 4   1     3 1 9
10 LAZIC, BRANKO 22:04 5 1/1 1/3   1   1 1 1       1 1 6
12 BARON, BILLY 25:38 20 1/1 5/6 3/3   2 2 3 1 3       6 28
14 RISTIC, DUSAN 2:15 2 0/2   2/2 1 1 2             1 3
22 SIMANIC, BORISA 25:33 17 1/3 5/8   1 4 5 1 5 2 1   3   19
33 ZIRBES, MAIK 17:56 6 3/4       3 3 1   3     2 1 5
50 OJO, MICHAEL 19:49 8 2/5   4/4 3 4 7     1 2 1 1 2 13
Team             1 1               1
Totals 200:00 100 21/33 14/28 16/18 11 20 31 25 10 13 3 1 18 20 129
        63.6% 50% 88.9%
Head coach: TOMIC, MILAN

Head Coaches

ERDOGAN, ERTUGRUL
Galatasaray Istanbul
"Congratulations to Crvena Zvezda and good luck in the Top 16. The EuroCup competition is a very important stage for us and we are sad that our journey is now over. We now have to switch attention to our domestic competition."
TOMIC, MILAN
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade
"I think that, in the second half, we played a little bit better than in the first half. I am not satisfied about how we played because we allowed 83 points and that is too much. Okay, our offense was good, but our defense was bad. If we want to be good in the Top 16, we have to play better defense. Our performance was good [during the season], but we lost against Brescia, Andorra and Monaco. This happens - if you see all the groups and all the teams, all of them lost some games. Especially our team, that was built this season with 10 new players. We lost some games, but our performance was correct all the time."

Players

HARRISON, AARON
Galatasaray Istanbul
"We made a lot of mistakes. It was tough to play this game knowing that we wouldn't advance. We didn't want it to be an excuse, but we know this is a good team that we thought was a much better team. We just have to use this correction, learn from this game and try to be better in the next one."
BARON, BILLY
Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade
"It is definitely a good road win for us. It was good to finish this round with a win and get whatever seed that we got... We are looking forward to keep this confidence going and take what we did good tonight into the next round, because we are going to have some tough games. I have great teammates who find me. I always try to play hard on defense and that gives me confidence on offense. I have some guys who found me, and it is fun playing out there, especially when we play as a collective unit, playing some good defense, some good basketball."