Ulm hangs on to beat Brescia

ratiopharm Ulm jumped off the bottom spot in Group A with a narrow 83-82 victory over Germani Brescia Leonessa. After missing his previous 10 shots, Katin Reinhardt made the game-winning jumper with 7.3 seconds remaining and Jordan Hamilton, who scored all the points in a 0-8 Brescia run to get his team back in the game, mishandled the inbounds pass that allowed Ulm to hang on to the victory. Ulm moved into fourth place with a 2-3 record, while Brescia fell to last at 1-4. Javonte Green led the Ulm attack with 19 points and 9 rebounds, Patrick Miller tallied 18 points, 6 assists and 5 steals and Dwayne Evans added 11. Hamilton scored 23 points to lead Brescia, Awudu Abass posted 18 points and 10 rebounds and Bryon Allen netted 15 points in defeat.

Evans for Ulm and Hamilton for Brescia started strong for their respective teams, who traded baskets for much of the opening quarter. Marco Ceron came off the bench to bury a jumper that made it 17-24 in the visitors' favor and Allen's triple kept Brescia ahead 24-29 after 10 minutes. Ulm was held scoreless for nearly four minutes to start the second quarter as Brescia stretched its lead to 11. The hosts rallied to within 37-42 and went into halftime down 40-45. A triple from Green to start the second half got Ulm within 2 and another midway through the third quarter evened the score at 57-57. Miller took charge with 5 straight points to lift Ulm to a 62-59 edge. The lead reached 6 before Brian Sachetti free throws made it 67-63 through three quarters. David Moss connected from downtown to push Brescia back in front, 67-69, however Per Guenther answered in suit and Ulm surged ahead. Ismet Akpinar's three-pointer put the hosts in charge 81-74. Back-to-back Hamilton threes got Brescia back in it and the same player put Allen's miss in with 21 seconds left for an 81-82 edge. Katin Reinhardt sank what proved to be the game-winning jumper for Ulm with 7.3 seconds remaining and Hamilton lost the ball on Brescia's final possession.

Hustle points

Ulm set a club record with 14 steals (its previous record was 12 against FC Bayern Munich in January 2016) and collected 18 offensive rebounds, which was tied for the second-most in club history. Those steals turned into 19 points and the rebounds into 21 second-chance points. That's 40 "hustle" points for Ulm; Brescia amassed only 21.

From zero to hero

Before Ulm's penultimate possession, Katin Reinhardt had missed 10 straight shots and his only 3 points came from 3 third quarter free throws. But with the game on the line, Reinhardt did not hesitate and had his shooter's mentality on display as he pulled up for a mid-range jumper with 7.3 seconds left that proved to be the game winner.

Brescia's costly mistakes

On a game that it lost by a single score, Brescia can look back and kick itself on a few fronts. One of them is free-throw shooting where the visitors missed 10 foul shots. Altogether the team was 19 for 29 from the stripe (65.5%); Eric Mika was 4 for 8 and Jordan Hamilton 1 for 4. Brescia also committed 19 turnovers, the last of which cost it the game.

Next game

Ulm faces another test in Round 6 when it hosts Group A leader Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade. Brescia remains on the road and will travel to face AS Monaco.