Trabzonspor goes out with a road win

Trabzonspor Medical Park finished its Eurocup campaign strong with a 73-89 victory on the road against Last 32 Group K winner Dolomiti Energia Trento on Wednesday. Trabzonspor, which had already been eliminated before the game, was paced by 27 points and 5 assists from Dwight Hardy while Andrija Stipanovic added 18 points and both Ryan Thompson and Novica Velickovic scored 11 points. Trabzonspor finished the group with a 3-3 record. Trento dropped to 4-2 but won the group and will take on CAI Zaragoza in the Eurocup Eighthfinals. Dominique Sutton, Julian Wright and Andres Forrey each had 10 points for Trento.

Forrey hit the first basket of the game for Trento with Thompson hitting at the other end to even the score. Hardy’s three-pointer gave Trabzonspor its first lead 5-7. Wright pushed Trento back ahead 11-10 and Sutton’s three-pointer had the hosts ahead 18-14 after 10 minutes. Hakan Demirel started the second quarter with a three-pointer for the guests to make it a 1-point game and Ibrahim Yildirim’s three-ball knotted the contest at 24-24. Trabzonspor nosed ahead 25-26 on Stipanovic’s basket. The lead switched hands 7 times the rest of the quarter with Trento up 37-36 at intermission.

Hardy started the second half with the first 4 points to put Trabzonspor up 37-40. Diego Flaccadori answered with a trey to even the game but Thompson punched right back from long range and Velickovic hit 5 straight points for a 40-48 advantage. Hardy added a triple and Derwin Kitchen made it 42-53. Trento was able to get the deficit down to 6 points but Hardy nailed back-to-back three-balls and Damian Kulig also hit from long range as the guests were leading 47-62, shortly before the end of the third quarter, which ended with Trabzonspor ahead 51-67. Thompson extended the advantage to 51-70 before Jamarr Sanders’s three-point play finally put Trento on the board after more than 2 minutes of play in the fourth quarter. Johan Lofberg added a three-pointer and Giuseppe Poeta converted a steal into fast break points to get the hosts to within 58-72. Trent Lockett’s score trimmed the deficit to 64-76 with 5 minutes to play, and it was 69-80 after Sutton’s putback with 3 minutes remaining. Hardy answered with a three-pointer and he scored another basket to make it 69-85. And Trento would not get closer than 14 points the rest of the way.