Cantu holds off Ostend for first victory
Cantu picked up its first win of the season and got back into the race of the Last 32, downing the visiting Telenet Ostend 68-60 on Wednesday night. Win improved Cantu to 1-4 record, while Ostend dropped to 2-3 in a share of the third place in the Group B standings. Cantu took the lead for good in the second quarter, and held double digits margins couple of times throughout the game. But Ostend kept coming back. A late 1-12 run got the visitors within 64-60, but Cantu finished the game strong on the offensive glass to secure the victory. DeQuan Jones led the way for the hosts with 18 points and 8 rebounds. James Feldeine netted 12, and Awudu Abass 11 points in victory. Ivan Buva contributed with 9 points plus 7 boards. Dusan Djordjevic paced Ostend with 16 points, John Prince and Jared Berggren each scored 12, and Mateusz Ponitka had 10 in the losing effort.
Baskets were few and far between in the start of the game, before Jones got it going, scoring 10 points for 12-4 Cantu lead after 5 minutes. Djordjevic and Prince sparked the visitors’ offense, combining to score 10 points, while the hosts had only one basket in the rest of the first quarter which ended tied 14-14. Ostend grab its first lead with a layup from Pierre Antoine Gillet, and Berggren had a dunk, but Buva sparked Cantu’s run during which Abass nailed a three-pointer. The hosts had 26-18, but Berggren scored twice inside, and Ponitka hit from long range and 28-27. Before the end of the half, Berggren and Khalid Boukichou tied the score twice before a triple from Feldeine gave the hosts 34-31 halftime lead.
Back-to-back threes from Jones and Feldeine helped extend the margin to 44-33, but Ostend replied with a 0-9 run capped by a triple and a put-back from Ponitka. Buva answered with a put-back, and Awudu followed it with a triple to keep the hosts in front, 49-42, before Quentin Serron and Feldeine traded jumpers in the final 15 seconds of the third quarter for 53-46. Prince scored for Ostend to start the fourth quarter, but Cantu held the visitors without a basket for more than 3 minutes while a put-back from Jones made it 59-48. Djordjevic countered with a basket-plus-foul, soon added a triple, and a pair of layups from Prince got the visitors within 64-60. But Ostend did not score again, with Cantu getting couple of offensive rebounds on one trip down the floor, before Darius Johnson-Odom and Feldeine sealed the deal, securing Cantu’s first win of 2014-15 Eurocup campaign.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Eurocupbasketball.com