Early blitz gives Mornar easy win

Mornar Bar used a huge first quarter as the springboard for a 95-76 victory over Germani Brescia, its second consecutive home with in Group B. The Montenegrin team blasted to a 14-0 lead after 3 minutes and it was 30-10 at the end of the first quarter. Brescia improved dramatically and got the margin down into single digits after the break, but that comeback proved short-lived as Mornar eased clear again in the final quarter. Mornar improves to 2-1 while Brescia is now 1-2. Marko Jeremic led Mornar with 14 points while Kenny Gabriel, Derek Needham and Nemanja Vranjes each added 11 for the winners. Christian Burns and Brian Sacchetti each had 13 points for Brescia, which also had three players score 11: Kenny Chery, Giordano Bortolani and Drew Crawford.

Uros Lukovic scored twice inside and Needham struck from three-point distance to give Mornar a strong start. The lead hit 14-0 after a layup for Alexander Lazic and a deep strike from Vranjes. Brescia's account was finally opened by Crawford but Gabriel's three and fierce dunk made it 19-2. Burns scored twice for Brescia but Isaiah Whitehead did the same, including a three-point play, protecting the healthy lead before dunks from Taylor Smith and Milko Bjelica made it 30-10 after 10 minutes. An acrobatic layup from Bjelica and a deep three from Jeremic highlighted the early stages of the second quarter, before Saccheti nailed a pair of triples to pull it back to 37-22. Chery from deep and Crawford with a driving layup completed a 0-11 Brescia run, but a triple from Sead Sehovic and a layup from Lukovic reasserted Mornar. Gabriel's three-ball helped take the host to the half-century mark, and after a flurry of free throws it was 52-35 at the break. Brescia scored the first 8 points of the second half, including an acrobatic layup from Giordano Bortolani, making it 52-43 before Bjelica got Mornar moving again. Bortolani struck again from the corner but Needham, Jeremic and Vranjes made long threes to take the lead back into double digits. David Moss also struck from deep as the three-point party continued, and free throws made it 74-56 after three quarters. Two baskets from Smith and a triple for Gabriel took the lead past 20, and there was no sign of a Brescia comeback this time as the scoring was shared evenly in the final stages.

Mornar makes perfect start

It would have been almost impossible for the home team to make a better start: Uros Lukovic scored the opening basket after just 2 seconds, and Mornar proceeded to convert its first 6 shots without allowing any at the other end. Even when Derek Needham missed a three-pointer, Lukovic still grabbed the offensive rebound and set up Nemanja Vranjes for a three-point shot and a 14-0 lead after less than 3 minutes .

Record broken for second consecutive week

That blistering start set Mornar on the way to a new EuroCup club record for points scored in the first quarter, with its tally of 30 beating the previous best of 28 set only last week against Unicaja Malaga.

Big runs bring Brescia back

Brescia got back into the game with a pair of big runs either side of halftime, dragging the game towards respectability with a 0-11 run in the second quarter and then opening the third with a 0-8 to get the deficit down into single digits.

Next round

Round 4 will see Mornar travel to Boulogne Metropolitans 92 next Tuesday, while Brescia is also on the road to Unicaja Malaga the following day.