2020-21Regular SeasonRound 9
December 09, 2020 CET: 19:00
Local time: 19:00 TOPOLICA SPORTS HALL

Pullen, Mornar snap skid against Metropolitans

Snapping its three-game losing streak and increasing its chances to reach the Top 16, Mornar Bar never trailed en route to an 89-78 win over visiting Boulogne Metropolitans 92 on Wednesday. Mornar lifted its record to 4-5, good for fourth place in Group B, while already-qualified Metropolitans saw its five-game winning streak broken and dropped to 5-3. Mornar had an early 25-10 lead behind great three-point shooting, but Metropolitans rallied before halftime, erasing the deficit. The visitors never went in front, however, as Jacob Pullen got Mornar going again late in the second and early in the third quarter. The hosts restored their double-digit lead, then used a 13-2 fourth-quarter run to ice the game. Pullen shined with 27 points on 5-for-7 three-point shooting, while Kenny Gabriel and Isaiah Whitehead scored 12 apiece in victory. Bastien Pinault scored 16 for Metropolitans while Assem Marei had 15 points plus 8 rebounds. Anthony Brown scored 13, Brandon Brown 12 and Archie Goodwin 10 points in defeat.

Mornar started on fire as Pullen and Gabriel hit corner triples to make it 8-0. After Anthony Brown hit the first points for the visitors, triples from Nemanja Vranjes and Pullen, followed by a three-point play from Uros Lukovic, opened 17-2 Mornar advantage after only 4:14 was played. Metropolitans got it going with back-to-back threes from David Michineau and Maxime Roos, but Vranjes and Pullen did the same to make it 25-10. Baskets from Michineau and Pinault closed the gap again before Whitehead's buzzer-beating triple, Mornar's seventh already, ended the first quarter at 32-20. Metropolitans cut the deficit to 36-28 with a three-point play from Goodwin and a triple from Pinault. Aleksandar Lazic had a monster dunk for the hosts, but Brandon Brown's triple sparked a 0-12 run during which he and Goodwin added fastbreak layups to tie 42-42. But Pullen responded with 5 points in 2 minutes for Mornar to hold a 49-44 halftime lead. Mornar started strong after the break. Dunks by Gabriel and Lukovic before a three-pointer from Pullen and a fastbreak pirouette from Whitehead made it 62-49. Anthony Brown and Brandon Brown, with a triple apiece, cut the difference to 66-58, but after Pullen Taylor Smith answered, Pinault's triple made it 73-63 after 30 minutes. Pinault and Brandon Brown each had a jumper to keep Metropolitans close, but Marko Jeremic's three-point and 5 points by Needham made it 85:69 with 5:15 to go. The visitors didn't score for almost 5 minutes as the margin reached 19 points to put the outcome out of reach, although Metropolitans worked to trim the difference and win the tiebreak possibility between the two teams.

Pulling Mornar

Jacob Pullen shined again with 27 points, making 4 of 8 two-pointers and 5 of 7 threes. It marked the fifth time in eight games that Pullen has scored more than 20 points.

Early three-point boost

The hosts shot 6-for-7 on three-pointers in the game's first 7 minutes and were 7-for-9 by the end of the first quarter. They then cooled off, not hitting another until the third quarter, and made just 3 of 15 the rest of the way. But their early marksmanship gave them the momentum that counted

Tiebreaker Metropolitans

Metropolitans learned that it had qualified for the Top 16 on Tuesday, but still made sure to win the tiebreaker. After having beaten Mornar back in Round 4 by 13 points, the visitors managed to cut the final deficit in this one to 11.

First impression

Metropolitans swingman Archie Goodwin made his EuroCup debut a good one. Goodwin finished with a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds along with 2 assists for a PIR of 24.

Next up

Metropolitans resumes action on Friday as it travels 50 kilometers north to the Montenegrin capital to face Buducnost VOLI Podgorica in a rescheduled Round 7 game. Mornar's next opponent is also Buducnost, as the two teams will engage in a Montenegrin derby in Round 10.

Jacob Pullen - Mornar Bar (Photo Mornar - StudioPetovic) - EC20
Wednesday, December 9, 2020
Eurocupbasketball.com
Referees: KOWALSKI, MARCIN; MAJKIC, MARIO ; LAVRUKHIN, ARTEM
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
Mornar Bar32172416
Boulogne Metropolitans 9220241915
End of Quarter1234
Mornar Bar32497389
Boulogne Metropolitans 9220446378
Mornar Bar
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 PULLEN, JACOB 27:35 27 4/8 5/7 4/4   1 1 2 1 2   1 1 3 24
2 GABRIEL, KENNY 19:17 12 2/3 1/2 5/5   3 3 1     1   2 2 15
5 NEEDHAM, DEREK 27:14 8 1/3 1/3 3/4       4 2 1   1 2 4 9
6 JEREMIC, MARKO 15:09 3 1/2 0/2 1/1 1   1 1 1 1     1 1 2
8 SEHOVIC, SEAD 10:08 2 1/2 0/1     1 1           2   -1
9 SMITH, TAYLOR 19:01 2 1/2   0/2 1 4 5 1         4 1 2
11 WHITEHEAD, ISAIAH 16:59 12 3/6 1/3 3/4   3 3     1   2 4 2 4
13 LAZIC, ALEKSANDAR 18:13 4 2/2 0/2   1 4 5     1     2 1 5
17 VUJOSEVIC, RADOJE DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
41 VRANJES, NEMANJA 18:19 6   2/4 0/1 1   1 2         1 2 7
51 BJELICA, MILKO 12:04 4 2/4 0/1     2 2     2   1 1 1  
55 LUKOVIC, UROS 16:01 9 4/5   1/1 2 3 5     2     3 1 9
Team           1 3 4               4
Totals 200:00 89 21/37 10/25 17/22 7 24 31 11 4 10 1 5 23 18 80
        56.8% 40% 77.3%
Head coach: PAVICEVIC, MIHAILO
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Boulogne Metropolitans 92
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
3 BROWN, BRANDON 24:31 12 3/8 2/2     1 1 5 2 1     3 1 12
5 KONATE, LAHAOU 12:18   0/1 0/1   2 1 3       1   2    
6 MICHINEAU, DAVID 18:02 5 1/4 1/3         3   3     4 1 -3
7 ROOS, MAXIME 15:36 5 1/1 1/6     1 1       1   4   -2
8 SAKO, NEAL 0:11                              
9 PINAULT, BASTIEN 25:26 16 5/6 2/2     1 1   1 4     1 1 13
10 GOODWIN, ARCHIE 25:28 10 4/7   2/2 4 6 10 2 1       1 5 24
21 BROWN, ANTHONY 30:34 13 3/5 1/4 4/4   3 3 3   2 2   1 3 16
50 MAREI, ASSEM 29:30 15 5/8   5/10 2 6 8 2   2 1 1 1 11 25
77 HALILOVIC, MIRALEM 18:24 2 1/8     3 6 9     3     2 1  
Team           1 1 2               2
Totals 200:00 78 23/48 7/18 11/16 12 26 38 15 4 15 5 1 19 23 87
        47.9% 38.9% 68.8%
Head coach: ZDOVC, JURE

Head Coaches

PAVICEVIC, MIHAILO
Mornar Bar
"Congratulations to my players for a great fight for 40 minutes. We had some bad moments in the second quarter, but that's basketball. It is hard to play at the same level for 40 minutes. Everyone who stepped on the court tried his best. We put our heart on the court, exactly what I expected before the game. Our meeting before the game lasted for 10 seconds, I just told the guys, 'This is our final, we cannot make a step back. Go and do it.' And they really did it. Maybe, this will be a historical game for our club, maybe with this win we can go to the Top 16, which would be the biggest result in club history. There is still one game left for us and Ulm, we both play tough road games. We play against Buducnost, Ulm plays against Unicaja. We will see, but we hope we will make history."
ZDOVC, JURE
Boulogne Metropolitans 92
"Congratulations to Mornar and their coach. We are not surprised at how Mornar played tonight. We know Mornar very well, we watched them, we prepared for them, but we did not do anything we talked about in the meetings and the locker room. We were slow from the start, we did not talk, and it was very difficult to slow them down once they got into their rhythm. We had a big problem on defense. On offense, we did not play well. We were too selfish, we did not share the ball. We were too static. It was too easy for the defense to read what we would play. At the end of the day, we scored almost 80, but when it is difficult to win if you allow 89."

Players

PULLEN, JACOB
Mornar Bar
"We needed a win at home, now just need to win the next game to go to Top 16. Now we got to win the next game, that's the most important, winning the next game. It does not matter what Ulm does, or anybody else does if we win."
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