Sutton's double-double lifts Trento in Bursa
In a critical game for both teams in Group D, Dolomiti Energia Trento recorded its first road win of its 7DAYS EuroCup season by topping Tofas Bursa 79-91 on Wednesday. Both teams now have 4-4 records, as does Zenit St. Petersburg. Tofas would have qualified with a win, but instead it fell behind Trento, which gained the head-to-head tiebreaker between them. Dominique Sutton paced the winners with 24 points and 12 rebounds, Beto Gomes had 15 points, Jorge Gutierrez added 13 while Shavon Shields and Toto Forray each scored 12 for Trento. Kenny Kadji led Tofas with 18 points, Pierria Henry added 15, Sammy Mejia had 13 and Raymar Morgan 11 for the hosts. Trento shot the ball with excellent percentages - 61.1% 2FG, 44.8% 3FG, pulled down 10 offensive rebounds and forced Tofas into 17 turnovers in some of the keys to the game.
Forray and Sutton each struck from downtown early for a 2-6 Trento lead. Kadji stepped up with back-to-back three-pointers, which Mejia followed with consecutive jumpers to give Tofas its first lead, 12-8. Gomes joined the three-point shootout and Sutton followed a dunk with a jump hook to tie it at 15-15. Tofas struggled to score, while Gutierrez scored in penetration and Gomes hit his second triple for a 16-21 Trento lead after 10 minutes. Sutton capped a 1-10 run with a driving layup early in the second quarter. Tony Crocker hit one from beyond the arc, but Shields and Gutierrez fueled a 0-7 run that made it a double-digit game, 19-29. Yigit Arslan buried a triple and Owens added an alley-oop dunk, but Trento found a go-to guy on Shields, who got plenty of help from Gomes and Diego Flaccadori to boost the guests' lead to 30-41. Morgan and Mejia led an 8-0 Tofas run, but Sutton answered for Trento with a layup-plus-foul and free throws. A power layup by Mejia fixed the halftime score at 42-46.
Silins and Gomes buried triples soon after the break, but Owens and Henry kept Tofas within 46-52. Forray had 5 points in a 0-8 run that Sutton capped with an off-balance basket for a 46-60 Trento lead. Henry followed a backdoor layup with a three-pointer and soon added a backdoor basket, prompting the visitors to call timeout at 55-64. Mejia and Henry brought Tofas a bit closer, 59-67, after 30 minutes. Sutton buried a six-meter jumper and Flaccadori struck from downtown, which caused Tofas to stop the game at 61-74 with over seven minutes left. Morgan and an outstanding Ermis brought Tofas as close as 71-76, but Shields silenced the crowd with a turnaround jumper, Sutton scored down low and a three-pointer by Silins sealed the outcome down the stretch.

Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Eurocupbasketball.com