Joventut triumphs in OT at UNICS to stay undefeated

Vladimir Brodziansky hit a hook shot with 2.8 seconds left in overtime to give shorthanded Joventut Badalona a thrilling 91-93 road victory over UNICS Kazan to remain undefeated in the 7DAYS EuroCup. Joventut was missing stars Ante Tomic and Pau Ribas, but Brodziansky came up with a career-high 20 points in helping the visitors move to 5-0 in Group A. Nenad Dimitrijevic scored 17 points, Xabi Lopez-Arostegui had 16 points, Simon Birgander tallied 12 points and 9 rebounds and Ferran Bassas chipped in 5 points and 13 assists for the victors. UNICS saw its two-game winning streak end in falling to 2-2 despite Jordan Morgan collecting 23 points and 8 rebounds. John Brown added 19 points, Nate Wolters had 15 points and 4 assists and Jamar Smith contributed 10 points, 5 assists and 4 steals in the loss.

After Brown opened the scoring for the hosts, Conor Morgan hit a three-pointer and converted a three-point play for a 2-6 Joventut lead. Wolters added 5 points at the other end to put UNICS up 11-10 and Jordan Morgan added the final 4 points of the quarter for the home side to lead 15-14 after 10 minutes. Joventut opened the second quarter with a 0-10 run as Lopez-Arostegui and Brodziansky hit three-pointers for a 15-24 lead. UNICS needed almost 3 minutes to score in the quarter, but then answered with a 12-0 surge in which Brown scored 8 for a 27-24 lead. The Joventut scoreless stretch lasted nearly 4 minutes. Albert Ventura knocked down a triple to even the game 29-29. Wolters's floater had the hosts up 34-33 at the break.

Birgander and Lopez-Arostegui keyed a 0-6 Joventut run early in the second half and a Brodziansky triple put the visitors up 40-44. Brown continued his superb game with 5 points and Evgeny Kolesnikov and Okaro White followed with three-pointers as UNICS went up 51-49. Joventut held UNICS scoreless the final 3:14 of the quarter and tallied the final 7 points for a 51-56 cushion after 30 minutes. Wolters opened the fourth quarter with a three-pointer, but Lopez-Arostegui answered with a three-point play and Brodziansky hit 3 free throws to make it 56-62. Wolters added another triple as UNICS stayed close, 61-64. Bassas punched back with a triple and the advantage was 65-72. UNICS twice got within 2 points before Birgander put in two baskets in a 0-6 run to make it 74-82. Jordan Morgan would not let the hosts lose with 6 straight points to claw within 80-82 with 13 seconds left. The ensuing inbounds pass resulted in a jump-ball, which UNICS won; Smith air-balled a triple, but White tipped it to Isaiah Canaan who put it in off the glass to even the game at 82-82 with 1.2 seconds remaining and force overtime.

Smith hit a triple early in the extra session, but was countered by 3 foul shots by Brodziansky and a Ventura three-pointer to give Joventut an 87-91 advantage. Smith evened things again at 91-91 with a steal and layup with 23 seconds left. Brodziansky provided the winner on a hook shot with 2.8 seconds left.

Joventut shorthanded

Joventut came into the game missing some real firepower as stars Ante Tomic and Pau Ribas did not make the trip to Russia and Arturs Zagars did not play. Conor Morgan started the game - and scored Joventut’s first 6 points - but he played only 17 minutes and limped off the court after the game.

Bassas nears club mark

Ferran Bassas's 13 assists set a new career-high - his previous best mark in the EuroCup was 8 assists - and they nearly were a club record. However, Kristaps Valters still holds the mark with the 14 assists he dished in a December 2009 game against UNICS.

Telling numbers

Joventut held UNICS to just 28.6% shooting on three-pointers and the hosts made just 7 of 9 free throws compared to the 20 of 23 foul shots for Joventut.

Next games

UNICS will remain at home for its next game when it hosts Umana Reyer Venice on Wednesday, November 4. Joventut will play Round 6 on the road when it travels to Serbia to face Partizan NIS Belgrade the same day.