Brescia crushes Galatasaray to boost Top 16 hopes

Germani Brescia Leonessa boosted its Top 16 hopes by crushing Galatasaray Istanbul 88-65 at home to leave both teams with a 3-5 record. The hosts led from start to finish, securing the victory with a decisive third quarter which left Galatasaray with no hope. Bryon Allen led the scoring with 18 points, but a more influential all-round display came from Jordan Hamilton with 14 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists. Awudu Abass also scored 14, and Gerald Beverly paired 13 points with 7 boards. Galatasaray was beaten in every statistical category, and was paced by 16 points and 9 rebounds from Nigel Hayes.

Brescia soon got its offense moving sweetly, scoring the first 4 points and then advancing into a 10-2 lead through a pair of triples from Allen. Beverly also shone with a flurry of baskets inside, including a highlight reel slam from Luca Vitali’s assist for a 16-9 edge. A pair of three-pointers from Erolcan Cinko pulled Galatasaray closer, but a big slam from Eric Mika saw the first quarter finish 26-18. Both offenses stalled early in the second, before 5 consecutive points from Can Korkmaz and a reverse layup by Zach Auguste made it 33-30. But Hamilton netted a pair of triples to protect his team’s lead, and it was 48-40 at the interval. A four-point play from Abass started the second half, and a pair of triples from Allen plus three more points from Abass and another long-range strike from Brian Sacchetti completed a 16-0 run to sentence the game at 64-40. Abass netted from deep again early in the fourth, Vitali did likewise to keep the lead in the 20s, and there was never the faintest sign of a comeback from Galatasaray.

Vitoli sets personal best

Brescia’s fast start to the game owed a lot to point guard Luca Vitoli. Although he didn’t score, the veteran Italian executed a smooth running of his team’s offense and delivered no less than 7 assists in the first quarter – setting a new personal high for his 39-game EuroCup and EuroLeague career before the first ten minutes had even elapsed. He ended up demolishing his previous best of 6 assists by registering 9 on the night.

Dry run derails Galatasaray

The outcome was settled at the start of the second half, when Galatasaray went seven minutes and 34 seconds without scoring as the home team enjoyed a 16-0 run. Even then, the visiting team could only add free throws and had to wait a while before finally scoring its first field goal of the second half. That added to a 2:38 barren run at the end of the second quarter, meaning Galatasaray went a total of 11 minutes and 20 seconds between field goals. You generally don’t recover from that.

Season high from long-range for Brescia

It was a profitable night from three-point range for Brescia, which converted 13 of its 33 attempts from downtown – its highest number of triples so far this season, beating the 11 converted in a victory over AS Monaco earlier this month. Bryon Allen led the way with 4-of-8 from beyond the arc, while Jordan Hamilton, Awudu Abass and Vitoli all struck multiple triples.

Next round

Brescia will seek to take another step towards the Top 16 with a key road trip to Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade, and Galatasaray will seek a return to winning ways away to already-qualified AS Monaco.