2020-21QuarterfinalsGame 1
Boulogne Metropolitans 92 74
Herbalife Gran Canaria 84
March 23, 2021 CET: 20:00
Local time: 20:00 MARCEL CERDAN

Gran Canaria claims Game 1 road win at Metropolitans

Herbalife Gran Canaria claimed the home-court advantage in its 7DAYS EuroCup Quarterfinals series with a 74-84 victory over Boulogne Metropolitans 92 on the road on Tuesday. Sean Kilpatrick netted 17 points to pace six scorers in double figures for Gran Canaria, which continued its hot play after winning the final three games of the Top 16. Javier Beiran tallied 15 points, AJ Slaughter and Matt Costello both scored 11 points and Aleksander Balcerowski and Tomas Dimsa came off the bench for 10 points apiece. David Michineau led Metropolitans with 15 points while Vitalis Chikoko had 13 points, Tomer Ginat 12 and Bastien Pinault 11 in defeat.

Michineau’s layup opened the scoring for the hosts with Stanley Okoye answering with the next 4 points. Kilpatrick added 4 points as Gran Canaria opened the first 4-point lead 6-10. Slaughter’s triple made it 10-15. Anthony Brown and Maxime Roos hit from deep to bring the hosts within 18-19 after 10 minutes. Michineau’s free throws started the second quarter, but Gran Canaria went on a run with Costello, Beiran and Dimsa all scoring 5 points in a 3-15 run to surge ahead 23-34. Chikoko completed a three-point play and Brown drained a triple as the hosts cut the gap to 34-40. The teams went into the locker room with Gran Canaria up 37-43.

Brown got the second half going with a three-pointer, but Kilpatrick punched back from long range and then Balcerowski tallied 4 points in a 0-8 run as the margin grew to 42-54. Metropolitans got 3 free throws from Michineau and a Pinault triple to trim the deficit to 48-56. Beiran temporarily increased the lead to 13 points, 49-62, but the score was 54-64 after 30 minutes. Pinault hit a three-pointer in helping Metropolitans score the first 6 points of the final frame. A Ginat three-point play had the hosts within 63-66. Dimsa countered with a three-pointer and Andrew Albicy picked a good time for his first basket to make it 63-71. A Slaughter jumper re-established the double-digit lead at 65-75 with under 4 minutes to place. Metropolitans was not yet done and Archie Goodwin scored 7 points to pull within 72-79. But Beiran drained a dagger three-pointer with 57 seconds left to make it 72-82.

Gran Canaria keeps rolling

Things looked bleak for Gran Canaria on January 27 after losing at home to MoraBanc Andorra to fall to 0-3 in its Top 16 group. Since then, Coach Porfi Fisac’s team has reeled off four straight wins and now needs just one more victory to reach the semifinals for the third time - and first since 2015-16.

Youth coming through

Gran Canaria’s 20-year-old big man Aleksander Balcerowski shined with 10 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 0 turnovers in 24 minutes. That came after he had 11 points and 6 rebounds in the final Top 16 game against UNICS Kazan.

Telling numbers

Gran Canaria forced 18 Metropolitans turnovers, turning them into 21 points. The guests also shot a blistering 60.5% on two-pointers while also connecting on 20 of 24 free throws.

Next games

Gran Canaria will host Game 2 on Friday, March 26 with the hopes of closing out the series, while Metropolitans looks to stay alive and force a Game 3 at home.

Sean Kilpatrick - Herbalife Gran Canaria (photo Metropolitans - Olivier DAlmeida) - EC20
Tuesday, March 23, 2021
Eurocupbasketball.com
Referees: PUKL,SASA; VILIUS, GYTIS; CLIVAZ, SEBASTIEN
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
Boulogne Metropolitans 9218191720
Herbalife Gran Canaria19242120
End of Quarter1234
Boulogne Metropolitans 9218375474
Herbalife Gran Canaria19436484
Boulogne Metropolitans 92
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
5 KONATE, LAHAOU 20:11   0/1     1   1           2   -2
6 MICHINEAU, DAVID 34:09 15 5/9 0/2 5/5   1 1 4 1 4     3 3 11
7 ROOS, MAXIME 13:54 4   1/3 1/2   1 1 1     1   2 1 3
8 SAKO, NEAL 2:37 1     1/4 1 1 2             2 2
9 PINAULT, BASTIEN 19:49 11 1/2 3/4   1 1 2 1 2 3     5   6
10 GOODWIN, ARCHIE 16:48 9 3/3 0/4 3/4   2 2 1   3       2 6
21 BROWN, ANTHONY 29:03 9 0/2 3/5     3 3 7   4     2 3 12
22 OWENS, JOSH 7:42           2 2   1 1     1   1
23 CHIKOKO, VITALIS 26:05 13 4/6   5/8 1 3 4 3         2 7 20
41 GINAT, TOMER 29:42 12 4/7 1/2 1/3 1 5 6 3 2 3     4 3 13
Team           1 2 3               3
Totals 200:00 74 17/30 8/20 16/26 6 21 27 20 6 18 1 0 21 21 75
        56.7% 40% 61.5%
Head coach: ZDOVC, JURE
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
Herbalife Gran Canaria
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 KILPATRICK, SEAN 21:22 17 2/3 2/3 7/7       1 2         4 22
2 BALCEROWSKI, ALEKSANDER 23:25 10 4/6 0/1 2/2 1 2 3 3 1       4 1 11
5 OKOYE, STANLEY 10:24 5 2/4   1/2 1 1 2 1 2 1     2 2 6
6 ALBICY, ANDREW 20:02 2 1/2 0/3     1 1 3   3     1 3 1
8 SLAUGHTER, AJ 19:58 11 3/6 0/4 5/6   1 1 5   1   1 1 3 9
9 DIMSA, TOMAS 18:38 10 2/2 2/3   1 1 2 3   1     1   12
14 SHURNA, JOHN 14:45 1 0/2   1/2   5 5   1 1     3 1 1
17 SANTANA, FABIO DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
18 DIOP, KHALIFA 0:18                              
24 COSTELLO, MATTHEW 25:12 11 4/8   3/3 2 6 8           2 5 18
33 BEIRAN, JAVIER 30:59 15 4/4 2/5 1/2   5 5 3   3     2 2 16
41 STEVIC, OLIVER 14:57 2 1/1     2   2 1   2     5   -2
Team           1 2 3               3
Totals 200:00 84 23/38 6/19 20/24 8 24 32 20 6 12 0 1 21 21 97
        60.5% 31.6% 83.3%
Head coach: FISAC, PORFI

Head Coaches

ZDOVC, JURE
Boulogne Metropolitans 92

"Gran Canaria scored 84 points, this is too much. We knew that Gran Canaria would be very difficult. They play very good. Without a second point guard, I knew it would very difficult. We can play good, but we cannot translate a good game into a victory because we need one more point guard. We don’t have a second creator. We are very selfish on offense, the ball doesn’t move any more. This is the main problem. And when you’re selfish, you lose the balls and you don’t have good spacing for transition defense. Everything is connected. Okay, we came back and they scored some big shots at the moment when we could maybe have turned the game around."

DUMAS, STEPHANE

Assistant coach Herbalife Gran Canaria

"We know they’re going to come back harder. They’re a good team. They will come back and play very well together. But we need to focus on ourselves like we did tonight: preparing the game very well, knowing they are the type of team that has a lot of players who are big threats. We need to keep working on our game plan and do the things that we prepared."

Players

PINAULT, BASTIEN
Boulogne Metropolitans 92
"They played better than us tonight for sure. We made too many mistakes in a crucial game like that. Now we know what we need to do in Gran Canaria. And I think we can. We are at the same level as them. We just have to focus on our mistakes and don’t do them in the next game."
KILPATRICK, SEAN
Herbalife Gran Canaria
"They came out and played tough, but I think we did a better job on the rebounding end today. Our guys did a great job doing cuts and we really protected the ball today - for the most part. But we know that we have to come out better. They’re going to come out stronger in the next game. We know that. It’s a long run, it’s a marathon. We just gotta keep going."