ALBA uses late run, career high from Siva, to put away Arka

ALBA Berlin put together a 15-2 fourth-quarter run to pull away from Arka Gdynia for an 82-68 victory at home to improve to 3-1 in Group B of the 7DAYS EuroCup Regular Season. Peyton Siva scored a career-high 27 points while hitting 6 of 11 three-pointers to go with 8 assists to lead ALBA. Martin Hermannsson added 16 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists and Rokas Giedraitis chipped in 12 points and 5 rebounds. Arka remained winless at 0-4 despite Josh Bostic scoring 18 points, Marcel Ponitka adding 13 points and 6 assists and Jakub Garbacz netting 10 points.

Bostic started the game with a three-pointer, but Giedraitis hit a triple at the other end for ALBA’s first lead, 7-5. The hosts remained hot from long range as Siva, Niels Giffey, Hermannsson and Kenneth Ogbe all were on target in building a 23-14 lead that became 23-16 after 10 minutes. Garbacz came off the bench for 5 points to get Arka within 25-24, but then Siva assisted on a Giedraitis alley-oop and a three before Giedratis fed Siva for a triple and a 36-30 ALBA lead. The gap was 40-35 at the break. Arka did a good job slowing down the tempo, while Bostic hit a pair of three-pointers and Krzysztof Szubarga and Mikolaj Witlinski were also on target from long range in knotting the game 47-47. Free throws by Ponitka put Arka up 52-53 only to see ALBA lead 54-53 after 30 minutes. Bostic’s basket had Arka within 59-57, but ALBA held the visitors to just one basket in the next 5:34 minutes and Siva nailed back-to-back three-pointers to finish a 15-2 run for a 74-59 lead with two minutes left to decide the game.

Game changing sequence

Arka had been doing a great job slowing down the competition’s highest scoring team and ended up keeping it 8 points below its average. But ALBA ran out a 15-2 run in the fourth quarter to take control of the game for good.

Pivotal performer

Siva took over the game in the fourth quarter with 12 of his 27 points with 3 three-pointers, including two straight in the decisive run. He also collected 2 rebounds and 8 assists for a performance index rating of 25.

Stellar stat

ALBA made just 40.5% (17 of 42) from two-point range while hitting 46.7% (14 of 30) from three-point range. ALBA did not attempt a free throw until there were 6:15 minutes left in the game and ended up hitting 6 of 8 - just one attempt more than the club’s previous low mark.

Next games

ALBA Berlin heads back on the road in search of its second victory away from home when it takes on Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar. Arka hope it’s a fifth time lucky for its first win in the competition in front of its home crowd against Limoges CSP.