ratiopharm Ulm uses 0-16 fourth-quarter run to beat Nancy and advance
Down 13 early in the fourth quarter, ratiopharm Ulm rallied past SLUC Nancy 76-80 to claim a ticket to the Last 32. The visitors used a 0-16 run to take the lead and hung on in the final minute when Derwin Kitchen tried to punch Nancy back in. Ulm finished Group C with a 4-6 record and will be either third or fourth depending upon Wednesday’s games; if Umana Reyer Venice beats CAI Zaragoza, it will be third and Ulm fourth. Da’Sean Butler led a balanced Ulm attack with 13 points, while Augustine Rubit, Chris Babb and Taylor Braun scored 12 points apiece. James Bell scored all his points in a 10-minute span of the second half to lead six Nancy scorers in double figures with 18 points. Derwin Kitchen tallied 13 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals, while Randal Falker also scored 13, Mickael Pietrus 12 and Benjamin Sene and Andy Panko added 10 each. Nancy’s Eurocup season ended with a 2-8 record and last place in Group C.
Nancy took control of the game immediately; it held Ulm scoreless for nearly five minutes while Seen scored 5 points, Kitchen 4 and Panko hit a three and delivered 2 assists in a 14-0 charge. Joscchka Ferner got Ulm on the board with a three-pointer, but Sene’s second three made it 19-3. Pierria Henry and Butler came in a got Ulm going. Butler hit a triple, Ferner sank free throws and Butler scored again; Henry assisted on all those paints before his first basket made it 21-12 after 10 minutes. Babb and Henry hit back-to-back threes before Rubit free throws drew Ulm within 23-22. Pietrus scored the next 6 points to keep Nancy ahead. Per Guenther connected from downtown twice to narrow the gap to 33-30. After Babb’s second three, Butler tied things at 35-35. Pietrus split free throws to give Nancy a slim lead, but Braun’s three at the buzzer made it 36-39 at the break.
Bell scored his first points with a three-pointer to tie it at the start of the second half. Baskets by Falker and Kitchen gave the hosts a 4-point edge. After Babb tied it, Bell knocked down another triple. He added two more from downtown, the last of which triggered a 9-0 run that gave Nancy a 60-47 advantage. Rubut made it 60-49 at the end of the quarter before Ball reached 18 points in a span of exactly 10 minutes with the first bucket of the fourth quarter. Threes by Babb and Braun gave Ulm hope, but Panko and Falker set a double-digit lead with less than six minutes to go. The Ulm defense silenced Nancy from that points, while Guenther, Braun and Butler twice his threes in a game-deciding 0-16 run that made it 69-75 with a minute and a half remaining. Falker ended the four-minute Nancy drought and a three-pointer and a jumper by Kitchen gave the hosts hope in the dying seconds, but Rubit iced the game from the line.
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Eurocupbasketball.com