Ulm knocks off Nanterre for first win

U18 ratiopharm Ulm picked up its first victory at the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Valencia with a 67-52 win over U18 Nanterre 92. Jeremy Sochan led the way for Ulm with 16 points and 8 rebounds while Tobias Jensen scored 13 points. Jacob Ensminger chipped in 4 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals for Ulm, which improved to 1-1 in Group A. Nanterre dropped to 0-2 despite Maxime Raynaud collecting 17 points and 12 rebounds and Marc-Antoine Loemba scoring 16 points to go with 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals.

Raynaud scored the first four points of the game for Nanterre and Ulm responded with a 10-2 run for a 10-6 lead. Loemba was the first Nanterre player other than Raynaud to score when he made it 11-10 after nearly 7 minutes. Lenny Liedtke hit four points at the other end and Ulm was up 17-10 after 10 minutes. Antonio Dorn pushed it to 19-10 early in the second quarter; Jakob Hanzalek made it 22-12; and Jensen increased the gap to 27-16. Nanterre went into the locker room down 32-24.

Sochan scored four points as Ulm increased its lead to 14 points at 40-26. But Nanterre held the German side scoreless for more than 4 minutes and Loemba picked up six points in a 0-13 run to close within 40-39. Jensen hit the final four points of the quarter for a 44-39 Ulm advantage after 30 minutes. A Mateo Donnadieu three-pointer had Nanterre as close as 46-42 but Ulm scored the next eight points and Sochan knocked down a triple as the advantage extended out to 54-42. He added another three-pointer in a 7-0 spurt to end all doubts for a 61-46 lead with 3 minutes to play.