A monster game from Devin Smith lifted Benetton Bwin Treviso into the Eurocup Quarterfinals with a 74-82 road win over Alba Berlin at o2 World in the German capital Smith torched Alba for a career-high 35 points on 7-of-10 three-point shooting plus 9 rebounds and 3 steals for a performance index rating of 47. Despite Smith’s showing, Alba was in it and led 67-65 midway through the fourth quarter before five different players combined on a 0-11 Benetton run that set up the outcome. Heiko Schaffartzik tried to lead Berlin back, but Benetton stood tall and eliminated last season’s Eurocup runner-up already in the Last 16. Benetton improved to 4-1 in Group L and can still win the group next week. Berlin dropped to 1-4. Stefan Markovic recorded 14 points and 6 assists and Donatas Motiejunas added 13 points and 9 boards for the winners. Schaffartzik scored all of his 18 points in the second half to pace the Berliners, while Derrick Allen had 17 – 15 in the first half – Julius Jenkins added 14 and Bryce Taylor netted 10 in deferat.

A nice inside pass from Tadija Dragicevic to Allen got Alba on the board first, but the visitors quickly gained control through Markovic, who nailed a three-pointer and then set up Brian Skinner and Motiejunas for baskets on consecutive plays. Markovic’s next pass led to Skinner getting fouled, making 1 and putting the lead at 2-8. Dragicevic answered from downtown, but Smith kept Benetton rolling. Immanuel McElroy carried Berlin to a 13-12 lead only to see a Smith triple put the visitors back on top. Motiejunas added free throws before Julius Jenkins settled the score at 15-18 through 10 minutes. Smith managed to outduel Jenkins to keep Benetton ahead early in the second quarter. Allen started to heat up, but Greg Brunner and Motiejunas lifter the Benetton lead to 20-28. Allen and Dragicevic helped narrow the gap to 32-33 and after a Markovic jumper, Taylor continued the push and Berlin went ahead. Smith connected from downtown to put Benetton ahead once more only to see Taylor make it 39-38 at halftime.

Smith came out firing for the second half, nailing a pair of triples and scoring another basket in a 0-13 start to the third quarter. Markovic was also hot for the visitors, but Schaffartzik was determined to answer and struck twice from behind the arc to keep Berlin alive. The Jenkins hit from behind the arc too, Schaffartzik added another and the lead was just 51-54. Massimo Bulleri added crucial points late in the quarter and Smith’s 31st point on his 7th three put the lead back at 8, but a Schaffartzik four-point play made it 59-63 at the end of the quarter. Jenkins tied the game at 65-65 early in the fourth quarter and then gave Alba a 2-point lead. Skinner knotted the game at 67-67, Markovic followed with a basket-plus-foul and Benetton never looked back. Alessandro Gentile and naturally Smith got involved in what became a 0-11 run that settled the outcome. A Schaffartzik bucket had little impact, since time was on Benetton’s side. Alba was forced to foul and Gentile was up to the challenge, denying Berlin a final chance and sending the hosts out of the competition.