Brescia rallies from 22 down to shock Zvezda

Germani Brescia Leonessa made history on Wednesday night by registering its first ever 7DAYS EuroCup victory and did so with a comeback for the ages. Brescia overcame an early 22-point deficit before halftime and then went on to hold off previously undefeated Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade 69-61 at PalaLeonessa. The win improved Brescia to 1-3 in Group A, while Zvezda dropped to 3-1. Gerald Beverly paced the winners with 15 points and Bryon Allen and Davis Moss scored 11 apiece for Brescia. Billy Baron netted 22 for Zvezda and Mouhammad Faye scored 11 in defeat.

Zvezda started on fire in opening up a 2-24 lead after only five minutes. Baron strung together 11 points during that span, including three consecutive triples. Zvezda scored 18 unanswered points and looked unstoppable. But Moss hit a pair of triples before the end of the first quarter, including a four-point play with 2 seconds to go, that cut the deficit to 15-31 after 10 minutes. He then paired up with Beverly to fuel the hosts' charge. Brescia scored the first 11 points of the second quarter and a minute later Allen's triple trimmed the gap to 29-32. The hosts did not allow a single field goal for nine minutes spanning the first and second quarters, before Jordan Hamilton scored inside to give Brescia its first lead and a halftime advantage, 39-38. Zvezda held the hosts scoreless for the more than four minutes to start the second half, but Brescia kept it close. Allen's triple got the hosts going again, and Brian Sacchetti's three put them in front for good, 51-48, late in the third quarter. A buzzer-beating triple from Allen made it 56-50 at the end of the third quarter. Neither team scored for more than four minutes in the fourth quarter before Baron hit a transition triple for the visitors. Brescia needed almost six minutes to end its scoring drought, but the hosts still remained in front. A pair of Beverly dunks helped the hosts enter the last three minutes up 62-57 and they led 66-60 with a minute to go before riding stiff defense all the way until the final buzzer and celebrating its first win in the competition.

Up and down, down and up

Basketball is a game of runs, but rarely as many runs as in the first half of this game. Zvezda made a 0-18 charge to open a 2-24 lead. Brescia answered with a 15-0 run that got it within 26-31, before proceeding to take 39-38 halftime lead.

Game-changing moment

Brescia had a scoring drought of more than five minutes to start the fourth quarter. Zvezda closed to within 56-54 and had possession, but Tommaso Laquintana made a steal and a diving save under his basket, Jordan Hamilton raced the other end on a fast break, missed, but Gerald Beverly was there to put it back with a huge slam. That basket got Brescia out of the slump and changed the momentum with 4:20 to go in the game.

Did you catch?

After Zvezda opened the game scoring 24 points in just five minutes and 30 points in first seven and a half minutes of the game, Brescia's defense then held the visitors to a single field goal for the next nine minutes to completely get back in the game.

Hidden stat

Zvezda had only 1 turnover in the first nine minutes of the game, but Brescia then used a combination of zone defense and a full-court press to force 9 more turnovers before halftime and eventually forced 18 turnovers for the night.

Next game

In Round 5, Zvezda will try to stay with at least a share of the Group A lead when it hosts Galatasaray Istanbul, while Brescia goes on the road to face ratiopharm Ulm.