Andorra holds off Hamburg late for key road win
MoraBanc Andorra claimed its first road win of the 7DAYS EuroCup season by holding on to beat Hamburg Towers 91-97 on Tuesday night at edel-optics.de Arena. The visitors led by as many as 15 in the third quarter before Hamburg rallied to twice get within 1. Codi Miller-McIntyre shined down the stretch to propel Andorra to victory and a 2-1 record. Drew Crawford led the winners with 21 points and 7 rebounds, Miller-McIntyre finished with 17 points and 11 assists, his backcourt mate Clevin Hannah tallied 13 points and 5 assists, Mario Nakic added 11 points and 7 boards and David Jelinek scored 10. Caleb Homesley scored 22 points to pace Hamburg in defeat, Ray McCallum had 17 in his EuroCup debut and Maik Kotsar netted 16 points. The loss dropped Hamburg to 0-3.
Nakic took a rebound coast to coast for the game's first points. Eddy Edigen put Hamburg on the scoreboard shortly thereafter. Amine Noua gave the visitors the lead with a pair of baskets, though Edigen split free throws and made a put-back to keep Hamburg close, 7-8. A layup by Nakic and a triple by Pauli extended the Andorra cushion to 6 midway through the quarter. The hosts turned things around through a three-point play by Kotsar and a triple by Homesley, 13-14. Noua answered from downtown, however, Lukas Meisner was fouled on back-to-back possessions and made free throws to keep pace with the visitors. Babatunde Olumuyiwa scored in traffic for Andorra before McCallum got going. He drained back-to-back three-pointers and Homesley followed with a three-point play for a 3-point advantage. Connor Morgan's blocked shot triggered a fastbreak that Crawford finished with a layup to end the first quarter at 26-25.
Miller-McIntyre and Homesley traded threes – and leads – to start the second quarter. Nakic stepped up with free throws, an offensive rebound and a basket-plus-foul as Andorra surged ahead 36-41. The lead briefly reached 7 before McCallum and Edigen scored inside. Zach Brown added a free throw after an offensive rebound to make it 43-45. Hannah took charge with a pair of deep three-pointers. McCallum hit a fade-away jumper before a three by Crawford gave Andorra a 9-point lead. A put-back by Edigen made it 47-54 at the break.
Crawford made a pair of threes in the first few minutes of the second half as Andorra took a double-digit lead, 49-61. The lead continued to grow with Crawford's fourth three of the game making it 53-68. Hamburg called timeout looking for a spark. It worked as Kotsar threw down a spectacular dunk and McCallum nailed a triple to trim the deficit to 59-68. Despite an Andorra timeout, Maximilian Di Leo added a triple to get the host within 6. Free throws by Kotsar and Di Leo got Hamburg within 3 before Hannah beat the buzzer with a jumper to end the third quarter with the visitors ahead 68-73.
Hannah found Olumuyiwa open inside and then knocked down a three-pointer as the visitors stretched the lead to 71-80. After a timeout, Homesley connected from behind the arc and Lukas Meisner came alive with a triple followed by a steal and layup to get Hamburg within 1. The hosts had a few shots to go ahead, but ultimately a three by Jelinek gave Andorra some much-needed breathing room. After free throws by McCallum, Jelinek knocked down another three-pointer for an 81-86 lead. Kotsar drew an unsportsmanlike foul from Victor Arteaga, sank 2 free throws and scored with a hook shot on the resulting possession to once again get Hamburg within 1. Miller-McIntyre scored 6 points in a 0-7 Andorra run over the next 90 seconds to all but put the game out of reach. Homesley gave Hamburg hope with a three that made it 89-93, but Hannah converted a jumper so Andorra could go home with the victory.
Miller-McIntyre’s second straight double-double
Codi Miller-McIntyre is playing some of his best basketball this season, which is his fourth in the competition. The MoraBanc Andorra point guard notched a double-double for the second week in a row after having just two of them in his first three seasons combined. Miller-McIntyre scored 17 points and dished 11 assists to lead his team to a tough road win. He tallied 10 points and 12 assists in a Round 2 victory. Of course, it wasn’t just the numbers that made the difference. After Maik Kotsar made it 85-86 with 2 and a half minutes to go, Miller-McIntyre scored 6 of the game's next 7 points to help secure the win.
McCallum sparkles in debut
Ray McCallum joined Hamburg Towers last week and only played a handful of minutes in the German League over the weekend, but he was ready to make an impact in his EuroCup debut. McCallum tallied 17 points, 3 assists and 3 steals in 28:28 minutes off the bench for Hamburg and is certain to be one of the key players for Coach Pedro Calles going forward.
Telling numbers: Andorra dominates the boards
It is never easy to win on the road when you commit 17 turnovers, but MoraBanc Andorra was able to do so because it dominated the glass. The visitors outrebounded host Hamburg Towers 30-43. They only allowed Hamburg 6 to take offensive boards. To put that in perspective, when Hamburg missed a shot, it only grabbed the rebound 15.8% of the time. The visitors controlled the paint in other ways too. Andorra had 4 blocked shots compared to 1 for Hamburg. Coach Ibon Navarro's men also made 63.9% of their two-pointers (23 of 36).
Tuesday, November 2, 2021
Eurocupbasketball.com