Bahcesehir stuns Joventut for first EuroCup win

Bahcesehir Koleji Istanbul captured its first victory in 7DAYS EuroCup history by knocking off previously-undefeated Joventut Badalona 77-87 on the road. Jamal Jones poured in 34 points while Ismet Akpinar added 23 points as Bahcesehir improved to 1-7 in its maiden season in the EuroCup. Alex Perez ran the offense with 13 assists as the Turkish club grabbed the win. Joventut could not overcome playing without Ante Tomic, Pau Ribas and Nenad Dimitrijevic in dropping its first game to fall to 5-1 in Group A. Conor Morgan and Ferran Bassas both scored 17 points for Joventut while Xabi Lopez-Arostegui picked up 14 points and Simon Birgander tallied 7 points and 12 rebounds in the loss.

Morgan’s three-pointer opened the scoring and Joventut was up 6-0 before Jones's three-pointer after 2 minutes had passed for Bahcesehir. Jones added 9 more points while Thomas Akyazili had a three-point play and Burak Yildizli hit a three-pointer in a 6-17 run to open a 15-22 lead. Bassas responded with a triple and three-point play and Albert Ventura hit 3 free throws as the game was even 25-25 after 10 minutes. Shawn Dawson put Joventut up 30-28, but the hosts were held scoreless for more than 3 minutes and Akpinar hit a three-pointer to start a 0-8 run for a 30-36 Bahcesehir lead. Josh Owens scored twice later in the quarter and Jones's triple had the guests up 35-45. Two scores from Lopez-Arostegui got Joventut within 41-48 at the break.

Jones opened the second half with the first 5 points and the lead grew to 12. Ventura and Morgan hit three-pointers as Joventut pulled within 49-55. Jones added another 5 points as Bahcesehir went on a 0-9 run and the lead swelled to 49-64. It was still 15 points (53-68) after 30 minutes. Akyazili opened the fourth quarter as the advantage grew to 53-70. Joventut would not go down without a fight with Bassas scoring 5 points in an 11-0 run over nearly 4 minutes to pull within 64-70. Bahcesehir kept its composure and Akpinar hit a three-pointer to start a 0-9 run and re-establish a 15-point gap 64-79 with less than 3 minutes to play. Bassas and Morgan hit three-pointers for the hosts, but Jones also connected from long range and Akpinar converted a three-point play to help Bahcesehir get the win.

Finally the breakthrough

Bahcesehir finally broke through for the win after a number of close games in the group. The Turkish side lost by 1 point at UNICS Kazan, by 6 points versus Partizan NIS Belgrade and at Umana Reyer Venice before dropping the last two games by 2 points at JL Bourg and 3 points versus UNICS.

Pivotal performer

Jamal Jones was unstoppable for Bahcesehir as the 27-year-old scored 34 points on 7-of-8 two-point shooting and 6-of-8 three-point shooting as well as 2-of-2 on free throws. He added 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals and 1 block for a performance index rating of 38.

Telling numbers

Bahcesehir shot 65.6% on two-pointers while holding Joventut to just 46.1% from inside the three-point line. Joventut also committed 20 turnovers as it could not take advantage of winning the rebound battle 38-29, including 13 offensive rebounds, resulting in only 8 second-chance points.

Next games

Joventut will head back on the road for its makeup Round 6 game against Partizan NIS Belgrade on Thursday, November 19. Bahcesehir will have a break from the EuroCup until December 9 when it faces Partizan NIS Belgrade in Round 9.