2017-18Top 16Round 5
ALBA Berlin 72
Herbalife Gran Canaria 75
January 30, 2018 CET: 20:00
Local time: 20:00 MERCEDES-BENZ ARENA

Gran Canaria wins in Berlin to claim quarterfinals berth

Herbalife Gran Canaria booked its ticket for the 7DAYS EuroCup Quarterfinals by knocking off ALBA Berlin 72-75. Marcus Eriksson nailed 5 three-pointers in scoring a team-high 20 points for Gran Canaria while Gal Mekel scored his team’s final 8 points and finished with 12 points and 5 assists. Gran Canaria improved to 3-2 in Group E to secure its berth in the final eight for the fourth consecutive season. ALBA got 12 points from Stefan Peno while Luke Sikma had 11 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists in the loss, which dropped the German side to 1-4 in the group and eliminated it from reaching the next phase.

Gran Canaria jumped out to a 0-4 lead and held ALBA scoreless for three minutes until Dennis Clifford finally got the hosts on the board. Another Clifford score made it 7-4, but ALBA did not score again for nearly four minutes while Gran Canaria went on a 0-10 run with three-pointers from Eriksson and Xavier Rabaseda. Spencer Butterfield stopped the drought and Niels Giffey evened the game at 14-14 after 10 minutes. Nikola Radisevic’s three-pointer started the second quarter for Gran Canaria, but after nearly two minutes with just 1 point, Marius Grigonis’s free throw started an 11-0 ALBA run, which included threes from Giffey and Joshiko Saibou for a 25-17 lead. An Anzejs Pasecniks’s dunk ended a five-minute scoreless stretch and Eriksson knocked down 2 more three-pointers to keep Gran Canaria close - trailing 35-27 at the break.

Gran Canaria got back into the game early in the second half with a pair of threes from Eulis Baez and a triple from Eriksson to pull ahead 38-40. After two ties, ALBA nosed ahead 45-44 on Butterfield’s three-pointer. The next three scores saw lead changes, but 5 more points from Eriksson pushed the Gran Canaria lead to 51-56. Peno scored 7 points in the final minutes of the quarter for ALBA, which trailed 56-58 after 30 minutes. ALBA scored the first 5 points of the fourth quarter for a 61-58 lead, but Gran Canaria punched right back with Pablo Aguilar tallying 5 points in an 0-9 surge to go ahead 61-67. Peno and Grigonis brought ALBA to within 70-71 with a minute to play. But Mekel converted a layup and after Peno missed from long range, Mekel nailed a long jumper to make it 70-75 with 12 seconds to play to decide the game.

Gal Mekel - Herbalife Gran Canaria (photo ALBA - Andreas Knopf) - EC17
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Eurocupbasketball.com
Referees: LATISEVS, OLEGS; RADOJKOVIC, JOSIP ; SUKYS, ARTURAS
Attendance: 6322
By Quarter1234
ALBA Berlin14212116
Herbalife Gran Canaria14133117
End of Quarter1234
ALBA Berlin14355672
Herbalife Gran Canaria14275875
ALBA Berlin
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 SAIBOU, JOSHIKO 20:56 5 1/1 1/3     1 1 2         2 1 5
3 SIVA, PEYTON 6:58     0/1         2           1 2
5 GIFFEY, NIELS 18:37 8 1/5 2/3   3   3   2 1       2 9
9 MATTISSECK, JONAS 4:42   0/1           1         1 1  
10 SCHNEIDER, TIM DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
11 VARGAS, AKEEM 15:04   0/1 0/1         3   2   1 1   -3
13 GRIGONIS, MARIUS 24:17 9 0/2 1/3 6/8 2 1 3 4 1 1     3 4 11
15 RADOSAVLJEVIC, BOGDAN 12:35 6 3/3     1 2 3   1   1   1 1 11
21 BUTTERFIELD, SPENCER 16:58 10 1/1 2/7 2/2 1   1           1 1 6
42 CLIFFORD, DENNIS 23:40 11 5/6   1/3 1 4 5   1 2 1   2 3 14
43 SIKMA, LUKE 27:53 11 4/7   3/4 5 5 10 4   7 1   1 3 17
44 PENO, STEFAN 28:20 12 3/6 0/3 6/8 1 2 3 4 3 3     2 4 13
Team           2 1 3     1         2
Totals 200:00 72 18/33 6/21 18/25 16 16 32 20 8 17 3 1 14 21 87
        54.5% 28.6% 72%
Head coach: GARCIA RENESES, AITO
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
Herbalife Gran Canaria
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
8 ERIKSSON, MARCUS 24:52 20 2/5 5/8 1/1 1 1 2 1 1 1   1   1 17
9 MEKEL, GAL 24:53 12 6/9 0/2         5   2     1 1 10
10 BRUSSINO, NICOLAS 13:10   0/3 0/2           1     1 3 1 -7
11 SEELEY, DENNIS 18:16 2 1/2 0/2   1   1 4   5     3 2 -2
12 BALVIN, ONDREJ 25:43 8 3/5   2/2 2 2 4           1 3 12
13 BAEZ, EULIS 13:18 8 1/2 2/2   1   1 1 1 2     4 1 5
14 PASECNIKS, ANZEJS 19:36 6 3/3 0/1   3 4 7     1     3   8
22 RABASEDA, XAVIER 23:45 5 1/2 1/4   2 4 6   4 1     2 2 10
31 RADICEVIC, NIKOLA 15:07 7 2/4 1/4   1   1 1   2   1 2 2 1
34 AGUILAR, PABLO 16:01 5 1/3 1/2   2 4 6 3 1       2   10
40 FISCHER, LUKE 5:19 2 1/1   0/2   1 1       1     1 3
Team           5 2 7     2         5
Totals 200:00 75 21/39 10/27 3/5 18 18 36 15 8 16 1 3 21 14 72
        53.8% 37% 60%
Head coach: CASIMIRO, LUIS

Head Coaches

GARCIA RENESES, AITO
ALBA Berlin
We tried to win and we had our possibilities, but today you could see what happens 99 percent of the time when players come back from injuries like Spencer Butterfield or Peyton Siva. It is very difficult for them because they do not have the right game rhythm yet. And it is also harder for the other players on their position. For example it is more difficult to play with confidence in the last minutes for a player like Stefan Peno when he knows that the player, who normally plays in those moments, is waiting on the bench. Overall, if you consider that our team is very young, many players have not played on this high level before and the injuries caused a lot of problems, I am satisfied with our EuroCup season.
CASIMIRO, LUIS
Herbalife Gran Canaria
"I am proud of the team for qualifying for the next round. Four consecutive years is very important for us. In the second half we played more physical and improved in the rebounds. Those were the keys."

Players

CLIFFORD, DENNIS
ALBA Berlin
"You can always look back at certain plays and say if we made this shot or made these free throws we could have won. I think there were a lot of little things we could have done better. But overall I think we did fight, we did play a good game. In order to beat a team like that, you have to make those little plays. If you don’t make a good percentage of plays, like recovering rebounds, getting those loose balls, making those shots, it’s going to be really tough to win."
BUTTERFIELD, SPENCER
ALBA Berlin
"As far as the injury, I felt good. As far as otherwise, I am a little upset about the loss. I was hoping we could come back. It’s a little frustrating right now. They hurt us a lot in rebounding. If we got a couple more rebounds, I think it’s a different game."
BAEZ, EULIS
Herbalife Gran Canaria
“Today it was a great win on the road to get the ticket to the quarterfinals in the 7DAYS EuroCup, where we have been in the last four seasons. The team made a great effort and now we have to be ambitious for the future, but go game by game.”
ERIKSSON, MARCUS
Herbalife Gran Canaria
"We are very happy [about reaching the quarterfinals]. That was our goal before the season. It was a very big win for us here in Berlin. It’s a very tough place to play and we won. They played very aggressive and physical. It was a pretty low-scoring game for us, but we also played good defense. And in the end we won and that’s the most important thing."
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