2020-21Top 16Round 5
Mornar Bar 81
Herbalife Gran Canaria 85
March 02, 2021 CET: 18:30
Local time: 18:30 TOPOLICA SPORTS HALL

Gran Canaria rallies to stay alive

Facing a must-win situation and elimination on a tough road floor, Herbalife Gran Canaria rallied from a 13-point first-half deficit to beat Mornar Bar 81-85 on Tuesday night in Bar, Montenegro. Gran Canaria improved to 2-3 in Group H and Mornar dropped to 1-4, as both teams still have chances to progress to the quarterfinals. Mornar led by as many as 42-29 in the second quarter, but Gran Canaria caught up behind A.J. Slaughter and Tomas Dimsa before Javier Beiran turned into an unlikely hero in the fourth quarter to lead Gran Canaria to a critical victory. Slaughter paced the winners with 22 points and Dimsa finished with 15. Beiran scored 10 of his 12 points in the fourth quarter and also had 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals, while Matthew Costello collected 10 points plus 6 rebounds. Derek Needham had 17 points and 7 assists for Mornar. Marko Jeremic scored 15, while Nemanja Gordic and Taylor Smith scored 11 apiece in a defeat.

Needham opened the game with back-to-back triples, but Sean Kilpatrick and Aleksander Balcerowski combined to scored 10 points and put the visitors up 11-12 in the early going. A big dunk by Taylor Smith sparked Mornar's run, during which Needham and Johnny Hamilton scored inside to make it 21-14. Dimsa and Jeremic traded triples late in the first quarter, before Fabio Santana and Gordic exchange threes to start the second. Slaughter scored the next 6 points for the visitors, but Mornar extended the lead with Aleksandar Lazic taking it to the rim and Gordic feeding Smith for a dunk, before Jeremic knocked down a triple, 42-29. John Shurna answered with a triple for Gran Canaria and Slaughter had another transition layup, helping make it 48-38 at halftime.

Dimsa fueled Gran Canaria's 0-6 run to open the third quarter and after Sehovic and Shurna traded three-pointers, Dimsa fed Costello for an alley-oop dunk and made a runner to cut it to 56-51. Needham and Hamilton connected for an alley-oop dunk for the hosts, but back-to-back threes from Dimsa and Slaughter put Gran Canaria in front, 58-60. Gordic scored twice from close range before the end of the quarter to give Mornar a 64-63 edge going into the fourth. The visitors took back the lead with back-to-back threes from Costello and Slaughter, 66-69, and after a three-point play from Jeremic, Beiran scored 7 straight points, capped by a triple to make it 69-76 with 5:30 to go. Smith and Needham answered with a 7-0 run to tie it, but Slaughter had a three-point play and Beiran's corner triple with 51 seconds to go made it 78-83, helping Gran Canaria hold on.

Key contributor

Gran Canaria forward Javier Beiran scored a total of 10 points in the first four Top 16 games and entered the fourth quarter of this game with just 2 points to his tally. But then he scored 10 points over the final 6 minutes and 40 seconds, including two triples, to lift Gran Canaria to victory. He was 2 for 2 on two-pointers and 2 for 3 on threes and also made both free throws.

Second-half defense

After allowing 48 points in the first half, Gran Canaria held Mornar to 3-for-14 three-point shooting and just 4 assists in the second half.

Depleted Mornar

Mornar was without its injured top two scores, Jacob Pullen (knee injury) and Isaiah Whitehead (shoulder injury).

What it means

Gran Canaria would have been eliminated with a loss, but now can qualify for the quarterfinals if it wins next week and MoraBanc Andorra losses one of its last two games. Mornar, meanwhile, can also qualify if it wins next week in Round 6 while hoping UNICS Kazan wins its last two games.

Next week

In Top 16 finale, Gran Canaria will host already-qualified group leader UNICS Kazan, while Mornar will travel to face MoraBanc Andorra.

Javier Beiran - Herbalife Gran Canaria (photo studiopetovic - Mornar) - EC20
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
Eurocupbasketball.com
Referees: GKONTAS, SPIROS; ZAMOJSKI, JAKUB; LAVRUKHIN, ARTEM
Attendance: 0 (Tentative)
By Quarter1234
Mornar Bar27211617
Herbalife Gran Canaria18202522
End of Quarter1234
Mornar Bar27486481
Herbalife Gran Canaria18386385
Mornar Bar
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
2 GABRIEL, KENNY 25:17 6 1/3 0/3 4/4 3 5 8       2   2 2 11
5 NEEDHAM, DEREK 29:35 17 2/6 4/10 1/3   4 4 7   3   1 3 5 14
6 JEREMIC, MARKO 27:51 15 2/4 3/5 2/2   4 4 1 1     1 4 2 14
7 GORDIC, NEMANJA 15:46 11 3/7 1/3 2/2   1 1 3         1 3 11
8 SEHOVIC, SEAD 18:35 6 0/1 2/4   1 1 2   1 1     1 1 5
9 SMITH, TAYLOR 25:56 11 5/10   1/2 3 1 4 1 1   4 1 2 2 14
13 LAZIC, ALEKSANDAR 17:22 2 1/2                     1    
17 VUJOSEVIC, RADOJE DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
24 HAMILTON, JOHNNY 14:43 8 3/4   2/2   4 4   1 3 2   2 1 10
41 VRANJES, NEMANJA 10:51     0/1     1 1           2   -2
51 BJELICA, MILKO 3:26   0/1           1              
55 LUKOVIC, UROS 10:38 5 2/2   1/3 2 3 5           1 3 10
Team             2 2               2
Totals 200:00 81 19/40 10/26 13/18 9 26 35 13 4 7 8 3 19 19 89
        47.5% 38.5% 72.2%
Head coach: PAVICEVIC, MIHAILO
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
Herbalife Gran Canaria
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 KILPATRICK, SEAN 26:13 9 4/7 0/1 1/1   2 2 1   1     1 2 8
2 BALCEROWSKI, ALEKSANDER 13:08 6 2/4 0/1 2/2 1 2 3 2   2 1   3 1 5
8 SLAUGHTER, AJ 33:33 22 6/11 2/5 4/5 1 2 3 4 3 1 1 3 3 6 23
9 DIMSA, TOMAS 22:43 15 3/7 2/3 3/6   3 3 3       2 2 3 12
14 SHURNA, JOHN 29:23 6 0/2 2/3     5 5 3         2   9
17 SANTANA, FABIO 6:27 3   1/1             1     2 1 1
18 DIOP, KHALIFA 4:13           1 1           3   -2
24 COSTELLO, MATTHEW 22:24 10 2/9 1/3 3/4   6 6       1 3   4 8
33 BEIRAN, JAVIER 31:04 12 2/2 2/3 2/2 1 6 7 4 2 2     1 2 23
41 STEVIC, OLIVER 10:52 2 1/1     1 3 4 2         2   6
Team           5 1 6     1         5
Totals 200:00 85 20/43 10/20 15/20 9 31 40 19 5 8 3 8 19 19 98
        46.5% 50% 75%
Head coach: FISAC, PORFI

Head Coaches

PAVICEVIC, MIHAILO
Mornar Bar
"I would like to congratulate our opponents. It was a tied game, exactly what I was expecting. Their experience and a little bit of quality decided this game. This game had two different halves. In the first half we played good basketball, we were focused on defense and we were running our offense very smart. We read every situation on their defense, punishing them, and I was very satisfied. In the second half, they started to switch everything and we were not smart at all. We lost our rhythm on offense, we did not run our offense how I expected. In those mismatches, we tried to make some difficult shots and missed three-point shots over their big men. We missed, they made them, and the game was over."
FISAC, PORFI
Herbalife Gran Canaria
“We needed to win this game. In the second half, we improved a lot our pick-and-roll defense, our defense on their shooters. And on offense, we created a lot of advantages after pick-and-rolls or on fastbreaks. Today, our guys had a great performance in the second half.”

Players

BEIRAN, JAVIER
Herbalife Gran Canaria
“We knew it was our last chance to keep fighting for a place in the quarterfinals. We started a little bit soft for a game that was like a final for us, but in the second half we started with switches, had more activity, and shared the ball more. We stopped them, they started playing one-on-one, and I think we played harder and were better in the second half.”
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