Kadji carries Tofas to first win

Tofas Bursa collected its first win in this season's 7DAYS EuroCup with a 96-79 victory at home over Arka Gdynia. Kenny Kadji set career-highs with 27 points, 10 rebounds and 34 index ranking to go with 3 assists for Tofas, while Diante Garrett collected 23 points and 9 assists for a performance index rating of 27. Kyle Weems added 16 points and 7 rebounds in helping Tofas improve to 1-1 in Group B. Arka fell to 0-2 despite 19 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists from Josh Bostic. Robert Upshaw III added 14 points.

Tofas had the better start in going up 14-9 as Kadji picked up 8 points and Diante Garrett had 3 assists. Arka evened the game at 14-14 as Tofas's offense stalled, but the hosts were up 18-14 after 10 minutes. Arka used strong outside shooting with Bostic, Krzysztof Szubarga and James Florence all hitting three-pointers for a 26-32 lead. Kadji got back into the game and helped Tofas pull back. The hosts were up 44-41 at the break. Coming out of the half, Kadji set up two Jeff Withey baskets as Tofas went up 50-41. Szubarga sparked a comeback with a three-pointer and 2 assists and Arka reclaimed the lead on a Mikolaj Witlinski triple to make it 54-55. It was 57-58 after 30 minutes. Kadji took over the fourth quarter completely with two inside baskets, back-to-back three-pointers and an assist to push Tofas to 72-63. It was a double-digit lead at 76-66 on Weems's four-point play with less than six minutes to play. Bostic and Florence hit threes, but Arka could not get the deficit to single digits.

Game-changing moment

Arka led 57-58 after three quarters, but Kenny Kadji scored off an offensive rebound to start the final frame and followed that with a dunk, back-to-back three-pointers and an assist and Tofas was on its way.

Key performer

Kadji was ever-dominant the whole game for Tofas with his 27 points, which included 3 three-pointers; 10 rebounds, 2 of them from the offensive glass; a career-high tying 3 assists as well as 1 block and 7 fouls drawn for a 34 index rating

Hidden stat

Tofas dished out 26 assists while turning the ball over just 10 times - Diante Garrett leading the way with 9 assists and 0 turnovers.

Next games

Tofas next will head out on the road looking to extend its winning streak to two games at Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar. Arka meanwhile returns to Poland with a home game against Cedevita Zagreb in hopes of getting win number one in the group - and its first European victory since the 2012-13 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season.