Brescia bests Nanterre to clinch Top 16 spot

Germani Brescia Leonessa clinched a spot in the 7DAYS EuroCup Top 16 for the first time after scoring an 85-78 home victory over Nanterre 92 on Tuesday. DeAndre Lansdowne led the way with 19 points and Awudu Abass scored 18 points as Brescia finished Group C play with a 6-4 record. David Moss led the way with 12 points and Tyler Cain added 11 points in the victory. Nanterre finished with a 4-6 mark despite Isaia Cordinier scoring 19 points and Kenny Cherry collecting 18 points and 5 assists.

Brian Sacchetti scored the first basket of the game and the hosts went up 7-2 on Abass’s corner triple. Cordinier, Cherry and Youssoupha Ndoye all picked up 4 points in a 3-12 answer as Nanterre went up 10-14. Brescia responded with a 7-2 surge to move ahead and 6 points from Cain had the hosts up 25-20 after 10 minutes. Spencer Butterfield came off the Nanterre bench and nailed back-to-back three-pointers to push the visitors ahead 25-28 as Brescia failed to score in almost the first 4 minutes of the second quarter. Lansdowne finally got the hosts on the board with a three-pointer and added another triple for a 31-28 lead as Nanterre went nearly 4 minutes without a score until a Cherry three tied the game. There were seven lead changes over the final 4 minutes of the half with Cherry and Mehdy Ngouama both scoring 5 points as the visitors went ahead 39-41 at the break. Lansdowne opened the second half with the first 5 points to put Brescia up 44-41, which started a barrage of three-pointers - Dallas Moore to even the game followed by triples from Sacchetti and Lansdowne plus a three-point play from Tommaso Laquintana to put the hosts up 54-46. Nanterre tried to stay close with 5 free throws, but triples from Sacchetti and Luca Vitali pushed the cushion to 64-52 going into the final 10 minutes. Nanterre came out with the first 4 points but the gap grew to 68-56 on a Moss three-pointer. Cordinier answered with a three of his own, but Brescia came back with 3 free throws at the other end and Abass nailed a three-pointer for a 76-63 advantage with 4 minutes to play. Nanterre did not go down without a fight with Butterfield and Cordinier going back-to-back from long range to trim the gap to 78-73 with 1:34 minutes to play. Lansdowne drained a three-pointer of his own at the other end, but Butterfield hit another triple and Taylor Smith put back an offensive rebound only to miss the extra free throw; it was 81-78 with 45 seconds to play. Andrea Zerini picked a perfect time for his first points for Brescia and Vitali added a free throw with 18 seconds left and that was enough.

Pivotal performer

Luca Vitali may have only scored 8 points, but he also chipped in 5 rebounds and 7 assists in doing a great job running the show for Brescia.

Moss ageing like a fine wine

David Moss may be 36 years old, but the Brescia captain continued his great recent run of play with a season-high 12 points plus 4 rebounds. Moss has averaged 9.2 points in the last five games after averaging just 3.4 points in the first five contests.

Brescia gets job done without Horton

Brescia was playing its second straight game without Kenneth Horton, who was the team’s third-leading scorer at 9.8 points and third in rebounds at 4.5 boards a game.

Telling numbers

Brescia connected on 76.2 percent of its two-point shots and dished out 19 assists while holding Nanterre to just 35.9% shooting from inside the three-point line.