Oldenburg overpowers Arka in fourth quarter
EWE Baskets Oldenburg used a huge fourth quarter to capture its third straight victory, 61-73, over Asseco Arka Gdynia in Group D. Oldenburg gave away a 13-point lead and trailed by 10 points late in the third quarter before starting the final frame on a 0-19 run to improve to 3-3. Justin Sears led Oldenburg with 16 points while Nathan Booth and Rasid Mahalbasic both scored 12 points and Tyler Larson picked up 8 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists in his first game for the German side. Oldenburg’s leading scorer Rickey Paulding was held to just 2 points. Arka meanwhile remained winless at home with three losses, but still has a 3-3 record. Krzysztof Szuberga stood out for Arka with 19 points and Bartlomiej Woloszyn added 9 points.
Mahalbasic tallied the first 6 points of the game before Szubarga finally got the hosts on the board after more than 3 minutes. Mahalbasic scored yet again and Oldenburg surged ahead 4-12. Boothe was next man up for the visitors with three jumpers to push the advantage to 9-20. Arka narrowed the gap to 12-20 after 10 minutes. After a Kevin McClain three-pointer increased the cushion to 12-25, the Oldenburg offense stalled a bit with Arka taking advantage of it with 7 straight points including Szubarga hitting the hosts’ first three-pointer after eight misses to make it 19-25. Braydon Hobbs stopped the rut, but Arka reeled off the next 7 points to make it 26-28. The hosts failed to score for 3 minutes and Gerry Blakes put Oldenburg up 6, but Dariusz Wyka’s three - his first points of the season - evened things at 32-32 going into the locker rooms. The second half started with a Hobbs three-pointer, which Szubarga matched and then assisted for Devonte Upson and converted a three-point play to put Arka up 40-35. Things looked even better as leading scorer Josh Bostic finally hit his first basket - converting a four-point play to help stretch the lead to 47-37. Ben Emelogu nailed back-to-back triples for Arka to maintain the double-digit cushion at 53-43. The score was 55-47 after 30 minutes. Oldenburg erased the Arka lead straight away in the final frame with Karsten Tadda and Philipp Schwethelm sandwiching three-pointers around a Larson three-point play to move ahead 55-56. The hosts’ nightmares continued and Sears added 6 points to extend the run to 0-19 to start the fourth quarter for a 55-66 lead. Arka finally scored for the first time on Bostic’s free throws with 2:02 minutes left. Sears added the next 6 points in establishing a 57-72 advantage late and the game was decided.
On again, off again
Arka experienced once again the on-again, off-again nature of Josh Bostic’s season. The team’s leading scorer scored 21 points in Round 1 followed by 8 points before scoring 19 points, 6 points and then 33 points in Round 5. But Bostic was held to just 7 points on 1-of-6 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 on free throws with 1 rebound, 2 assists and 4 turnovers in 25:00 minutes.
Pivotal performer
Justin Sears paced Oldenburg with 16 points while hitting all 10 of his free throws and grabbing 6 rebounds - 5 of them coming from the offensive glass. He added 1 assist and drew 9 fouls for a performance index rating of 26.
Telling numbers
Arka connected on just 25.9 percent of its three-pointers while Oldenburg scored 10 fastbreak points to zero for Arka. The visitors also tallied 24 points off turnovers to Arka’s 13 and won the second-chance points battle 17 to 9.
Next games
Arka hopes to continue its curious trend of winning all its road games as it travels to Spain to take on Unicaja Malaga on Wednesday, November 13. Oldenburg returns home after two straight road games and is looking for a four-game winning streak when it hosts Galatasaray Doga Sigorta Istanbul the same evening.

Tuesday, November 5, 2019
Eurocupbasketball.com