Ostend rally from 14 down to clinch second place

Telenet Ostend rallied from a 14-point deficit to down FoxTown Cantu 83-77, and finish the regular season in the second place of Group B. Ostend finished with 6-4 record, and thanks to its higher cumulative score difference finishes ahead of 6-4 JDA Dijon. Meanwhile, Cantu got its three-game winning streak snapped, and advances to the Last 32 from the fourth place and 4-6 record. Cantu led for the first three quarters by as many as 14 points, before John Prince got Ostend's offense going late in the third quarter. An 11-0 run in the fourth put the hosts finally in front, 73-65, but Ostend still needed a pair of late threes to pull away the victory. Prince paced the winners with 19 points, Dusan Djordjevic scored 10, and Mateusz Pnitka had 9. James Feldeine scored 16 for Cantu, DeQuan Jones had 15, Darius Johnson-Odom 14 points, and Ivan Buva 11 points plus 6 rebounds in the losing effort.

Cantu struck first with Feldeine working on defense, and Jones fueling the offense for 4-11 lead. Pierre Antoine Gillet hit a three for the hosts, but Cantu closed the first quarter on a 0-11 run, having five different scorers in a span of two and a half minutes for 11-24 after the first quarter. Guy Muya and Ponitka led the charge that cut it to 20-27, but Buva inside and Johnson-Odom from the outside made it 20-34. Feldeine and Wes Wilkinson traded triples, before Buva and Johnson-Odom kept the margin at 14 points. Muya and Dusan Djordjevic each hit a three for the hosts, but Feldeine, Jones and Buva made sure Cantu goes into halftime up 35-47.

The visitors maintained the margin in the second half, as a put-back from Eric Williams and a three-pointer from Stefano Gentile made it 45-57. But John Prince got Ostend going late in the third, then had a steal, an assist, a triple and four free throws early in the fourth to tie the game, 62-62. Gentile nailed a three-pointer for Cantu, but Khallid Boukichou and Prince scored all points in an 11-0 run for 73-65. Johnson-Odom and Feldeine hit back-to-back threes to keep Cantu in the game, helping tie the score at 73-73 with under 2 minutes left, but a triple from Gillet, a jumper from Djordjevic, and finally a triple from Quentin Serron with 28 seconds to go, got Ostend the precious victory.