MoraBanc returns with sharpshooting home win

In a replay of their suspended Round 7 game on Thursday, MoraBanc Andorra shook off a long idle stretch to defeat visiting Telenet Giants Antwerp 82-69 at Poliesporiu D'Andorra. MoraBanc evened its record at 3-3, including two wins over Antwerp, who was eliminated from 7DAYS EuroCup Top 16 contention as its record fell to 0-7. David Jelinek led the winners with 20 points, including 4 of his team's 13 three-pointers. Oriol Pauli added 11 points and 9 rebounds, while Tyson Perez scored 10 for the winners. For Antwerp, Ibrahima Faye had 22 points and 7 rebounds. Jalen Jenkins followed with 18 points while Stephaun Branch had 10 plus 5 steals.

Triples by Sergi Garcia, Jeremy Senglin and Jelinek gave MoraBanc a quick 11-3 advantage. Despite 5 points from Faye, MorBanc's fourth three-pointer by a fourth player, Nacho Llovet, made it 14-7. Jenkins hit 2 layups before Faye drove for another as Antwerp forged a 15-15 tie. Tomasz Gielo appeared with 5 consecutive points for MoraBanc, Pauli detonated and alley-up dunk and Garcia beat the buzzer for a 24-17 scoreboard after a quarter. After Branch went coast-to-coast for a dunk, Jenkins hit Antwerp's first triple and a hook shot, setting up Kenny Smith's transition layup to pull Antwerp within 27-26. A pair of spectacular alley-oops from Vrenz Bleijenbergh to Faye kept Antwerp within 33-32, but Senglin hit one triple and Perez two as MoraBanc lengthened the lead. Perez detonated a dunk as MoraBanc kept rolling to a 50-38 halftime lead. Triples by Gielo and Jelenik and Pauli's steal-and-dunk quicky lifted MoraBanc's lead to 20 points, 58-38, after the break. Dave Dudzinski and Branch stopped Antwerp's bleeding and Jenkins returned for 5 points in a 2-12 Antwerp run to within 60-50. Free throws by Bleijenbergh and Smith cut the distance further, to 62-54, before Llovet did the same to leave MoraBac up 64-54 after 30 minutes. Jenkins lowered the difference to single digits again at the free throw line but turnovers intruded on Antwerp's comeback try at the wrong time. MoraBanc used Jelinek's fourth triple as part of a surge to a 78-61 lead that assured the victory would not leave Andorra.

Game-changing sequence

It was 33-32 midway through the second quarter when Antwerp flagged but MoraBanc turned up the heat with a 17-5 run until halftime that continued with the 8 points after the break, for a 25-6 run to a 58-38 lead. Jeremy Singlen's three-pointer started the burst, Tyson Perez added 8 second-quarter points, while Tomasz Gielo and David Jelinek started the second half with triples. Antwerp never fully recovered.

Did you notice?

Despite 20 days without game action and only a couple of practice, Sergi Garcia, Jeremy Senglin, David Jelinek and Nacho Llovet downed MoraBanc's first four three-point attempts in a span of 3 minutes for a 14-7 start. Six MoraBanc players would make 9 of 16 triples by halftime to break the game open, 50-38.

Stellar Stat

Those triples fell less in the second half but MoraBanc still matched its third-best total in a EuroCup game by finishing 13-for-29 from downtown for a solid 44.8%. By contrast, Antwerp only converted 3 of 17 such tries for 17.6%, marking much of the difference in the game.

Honorable mention

Ibrahima Faye of Antwerp put on a highlight-reel show of alley-oop dunks while shooting 9-for-16 on two-pointers to finish with 22 points. He also led his team with 7 rebounds.

Next Games

MoraBanc has two suspended games to make up yet but its next scheduled one is at home against already-qualified Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar in Round 9 on Wednesday, December 9. Antwerp is all caught up on its games and will return to action the same night when it hosts Lietkabelis Panevezys.