Telenet Giants Antwerp vs. Virtus Segafredo Bologna - Game

2020-21Regular SeasonRound 5

October 27, 2020 CET: 20:00

Local time: 20:00 LOTTO ARENA

Virtus blasts Antwerp to remain undefeated

Virtus Segafredo Bologna defeated Telnet Antwerp Giants 76-95 at Lotto Arena on Tuesday to close out the first half of the regular season with a 5-0 record atop Group C. The visitors took an early 3-15 lead thanks to Josh Adams, who scored 11 points without a miss in the first 3 minutes. Even though Antwerp fought back and got within 41-45 right after halftime, Virtus found its offensive rhythm and punished the opponent’s defense with 52 second-half points. Adams led six Virtus scorers in double figures with a career-high 24 points. Awudu Abass and Milos Teodosic had 15 each, followed by Amar Alibegovic, Vince Hunter and Amedeo Tessitori with 12, 10 and 10 points, respectively. Ibrahima Faye collected 16 points and 11 rebounds for a career-high PIR of 24, while "Speedy" Smith poured in 16 points plus 10 assists as Antwerp remained winless. Jalen Jenkins added 15 points and Vrenz Bleijenbergh 14 on 4-of-8 three-point shooting in defeat.

The visitors started at full throttle, holding Antwerp to just 3 points in the first 4 minutes. Meanwhile, Adams nailed a couple of threes and added a three-point play and a nice dunk to boost Virtus to a 3-15 lead. Back-to-back triples by Bleijenberch and Smith woke the hosts up, but Adams kept punishing from the perimeter to protect a double-digit margin for the visitors at 11-21. The joy didn’t last for long though, as Virtus had just one basket after Adams left the court and allowed an 8-2 run that made it 19-23 at the end of the first quarter. Neither team was able to find its offensive rhythm early in the second, as only Jalen Jenkins and Abass managed to score for each team to set a 21-25 score after 14 minutes. Teodosic decided to take over then, collecting a couple of buckets and adding an assist to Hunter, but the hosts weathered the storm thanks to Faye inside and Bleijenberch outside. A three by Smith made it 30-33. Teodosic responded twice from downtown to keep Virtus in front. Hunter and Tessitori rocked inside to extend the margin to double digits at halftime, 33-43.

Bleijenberch came up strong after the break with back-to-back threes and a layup to bring his team within 41-45. Virtus didn’t panic as Adams and Kyle Weems replied from deep and Hunter contributed from the line to regain a safe margin, 42-55, midway through the third quarter. The teams traded points for a while, which benefited Virtus. A corner three and a nice left-handed hook shot by Alibegovic made it 50-66, prompting an Antwerp timeout. It didn’t work for the hosts, as Teodosic drained a three to enter the last quarter with Virtus clearly in charge, 54-71. The hosts tried to spark a reaction through Jenkins and Dennis Donkor, who hit one each from downtown to keep Virtus in sight. After Coach Djordjevic called for a timeout, Abass and Adams showed up to make it a 20-point game, 64-84, with 5 minutes remaining. More triples by Alibegovic and Abass sealed the outcome after that, allowing Virtus to make it five wins out of five games.

Grande vittoria per le Vu Nere nella trasferta contro i @antwerpgiants

Il 5 Round di @EuroCup termina 76 a 95! #RoadToGreatness #7DAYSEuroCup #BlackisBack pic.twitter.com/Sw1JAn70RI
— Virtus Segafredo Bologna (@Virtusbo) October 27, 2020

Pivotal performer

Josh Adams completed his best game so far in the EuroCup; he finished with career-highs in points (24) and PIR (32). He pushed his team to an early 3-15 lead, tallying 11 points without a miss in just 3 minutes, which helped Virtus to take control of the game for good. When the hosts threatened to come back after halftime, he combined with Kyle Weems from the three-point line to rebuild a double-digit lead.

Offense matters too

The visitors scored 52 second-half points to take off after Antwerp came back early in the third quarter. Virtus executed as it wanted and had six scorers in double digits. Its accuracy from behind the arc in the last 20 minutes (9 of 14) gave Virtus its highest scoring mark of the season so far.

Wasted chances

Antwerp dominated the offensive glass by grabbing 17 rebounds under Virtus’s rim. Nevertheless, it wasn’t a factor in the end as it could only turn them into 11 second-chance points.

Next up

Both teams will play at home in Round 6. Antwerp will look for its first win of the season against Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar on Wednesday, November, 4, while Segafredo Virtus Bologna hosts Lietkabelis Panevezys the same day.

Josh Adams - Virtus Segafredo Bologna (photo Giants - Goyvaerts - GMax Agency) - EC20

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Eurocupbasketball.com

Referees: PANTHER, ANNE; HIERREZUELO, DANIEL; CICI, GENTIAN

Attendance: 0

By Quarter	1	2	3	4
Telenet Giants Antwerp	19	14	21	22
Virtus Segafredo Bologna	23	20	28	24

End of Quarter	1	2	3	4
Telenet Giants Antwerp	19	33	54	76
Virtus Segafredo Bologna	23	43	71	95

Telenet Giants Antwerp

							Rebounds						Blocks		Fouls
#	Player	Min	Pts	2FG	3FG	FT	O	D	T	As	St	To	Fv	Ag	Cm	Rv	PIR
2	JENKINS, JALEN	28:05	15	2/3	2/4	5/6	1	5	6	1	2	2			4	4	18
9	VAN DEN EYNDE, NIELS	3:47		0/1	0/1					2		1					-1
11	DE RIDDER, THIJS	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
12	BLEIJENBERGH, VRENZ	31:19	14	1/3	4/8		3	2	5	1	3	1		1	3	2	14
13	DE RIDDER, NIELS	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
14	ROGIERS, ROBY	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
22	KESTELOOT, VINCENT	33:45	9	4/8	0/3	1/2	3	3	6		2				2	2	9
23	DUDZINSKI, DAVID	18:27		0/2	0/3			1	1			3		1	5	3	-10
28	FAYE, IBRAHIMA	33:28	16	3/9	0/1	10/14	3	8	11	1	3	2	1	1	3	7	22
32	DONKOR, DENNIS	15:42	6	0/1	2/6							1				1	1
44	SMITH, KENNETH	35:27	16	3/7	2/5	4/4		2	2	10	1	5			2	5	20
	Team						7	1	8			2					6
	Totals	200:00	76	13/34	10/31	20/26	17	22	39	15	11	17	1	3	19	24	79
				38.2%	32.3%	76.9%

Head coach: BEGHIN, CHRISTOPHE

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

Virtus Segafredo Bologna

							Rebounds						Blocks		Fouls
#	Player	Min	Pts	2FG	3FG	FT	O	D	T	As	St	To	Fv	Ag	Cm	Rv	PIR
0	TESSITORI, AMEDEO	24:01	10	5/7		0/2	1	6	7	2	1	1	1	1	4	4	15
3	ABASS, AWUDU	20:05	15	2/4	3/5	2/2		3	3			2			2	1	11
6	PAJOLA, ALESSANDRO	17:33					2	3	5	1	4	3			4	1	4
7	ALIBEGOVIC, AMAR	20:50	12	3/4	2/5	0/2	2		2	2		2	1		4	1	6
9	MARKOVIC, STEFAN	17:25	2		0/1	2/2		2	2	5	1	2				1	8
11	RICCI, GIAMPAOLO	16:54	2	1/1	0/1		1	4	5			2					4
14	ADAMS, JOSH	22:15	24	5/6	4/5	2/2		4	4	4	1	1			2	4	32
32	HUNTER, VINCE	17:20	10	4/5		2/3	1	4	5	1	1	2	1		3	3	14
34	WEEMS, KYLE	18:11	5	1/4	1/2					3	1				2		3
35	NIKOLIC, STEFAN	3:24		0/1	0/1										1		-3
44	TEODOSIC, MILOS	22:02	15	3/3	3/7			1	1	7	1	3			2	3	18
45	GAMBLE, JULIAN	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Team							1	1								1
	Totals	200:00	95	24/35	13/27	8/13	7	28	35	25	10	18	3	1	24	18	113
				68.6%	48.1%	61.5%

Head coach: DJORDJEVIC, SASA

Head Coaches

BEGHIN, CHRISTOPHE

Telenet Giants Antwerp

"Like I said in the locker room, we were expecting them a little bit too much at the beginning. It took us like 3 minutes to really get into the game. And against an opponent like this, it takes a lot of energy to come back at the right level. I think we fought pretty hard, I said it also to the guys in the locker room. Ok, we lost by 20 points tonight, against a great opponent. We played with a lot of young guys, so we have to learn from these kinds of games. I’m very proud of them because they fought from the beginning to the end. We have to bring that kind of mentality every time. Sometimes, like against Monaco, we let it down, or against Andorra, in the second half here, we let it go. That’s something we have to learn, and I think we have improved a lot the last two games. We are going to keep on working pretty hard to get to the place we want to be."

DJORDJEVIC, SASA

Virtus Segafredo Bologna

"It was an important win for us. Of course, every win on the road is, especially in the beginning. We are creating an identity and I believe the guys had a serious approach defensively and, in the end, when our execution was a little bit better, we came to finish the game in this way. There is still a lot of work to do, a lot of games, but it was a very important one. I congratulate my players."

"We opened the game really well, after that we had a blackout of 5 minutes, but we continued to play defense. Antwerp didn’t take advantage of that and didn’t take the game over, although they could have done it, because we didn’t play, we didn’t execute our offense well. The important thing is that we put our minutes to the minimum limits and we won it at a reasonable physical effort and energy loss on this game. We need to take care of that because we keep on playing the Italian championship, which is very tough. And this EuroCup, with the trips, is also a very tough thing. We are 5-0, which is what we wanted, nevertheless, this is a very tough group. We are looking forward to playing the next game."

Players

KESTELOOT, VINCENT

Telenet Giants Antwerp

"I think it was a game we can learn a lot from. We played against a very good and experienced team. It's a double feeling, we fought hard, we tried to play with a lot of energy. But if you take away the 2 or the 3 first minutes, maybe it’s a different kind of game because it took us a lot of energy, also mentally, to come back. Because when a team like that is up by 13-14 points after the first minutes, it is very tough. But we kept on fighting and unlike other games in which we lost our heads or our heads were down, we kept on fighting and even though we lost, it was against a great team and we can only learn from it and we just can go up from here."

ADAMS, JOSH

Virtus Segafredo Bologna

"Of course, it’s an important win to close out the first time with all the teams, to get a road win. We had a lot to improve on with very good teams. Our execution was good, our guys played hard, we had good guys com in and give energy."