Reyer's sixth straight win sends it to Top 16

Umana Reyer Venice downed Tofas Bursa on the road 73-80 to register its sixth straight win while booking its place in the Top 16. Reyer improved to 6-2 to remain in first place in Group B, while Tofas dropped to 4-4 with two games to go. The visitors took the lead for good midway through the second quarter, but never extended the margin into double figures until building a 57-67 margin in the fourth quarter to close out the game. Michael Bramos was on fire, netting a career-best 28 points for the winners. Mitchell Watt collected 13 points, 6 assists and 6 rebounds, Jeremy Chappell also scored 13 and Austin Daye had 11 points in the victory. Devin Williams paced the hosts with 16 points, Muhsin Yasar scored 14, Tarik Phillip collected 12 points, 6 assists and 4 steals and Sammy Mejia netted 10 in a losing effort.

Reyer pulled away early behind 8 points, including triples from Chappell, before threes from Bramos and Daye extended the margin to 9-18. Mejia sparked the hosts by scoring 7 of their first 11 points, before Yasar scored 4 points in the final 60 seconds of the first quarter and 4 more in the first 80 seconds of the second to give Tofas a 23-22 edge. Daye snapped a 10-0 run, before a pair of triples from Bramos and a three-point play from Watt made it 30-37. A three-point play from Matt Lojeski and a three-pointer from Mejia helped Tofas cut the margin to 38-41 at halftime. A long jumper from Bramos and back-to-back triples from Chappell and Julyan Stone pushed the visitors to 42-51. Baris Ermis hit from downtown for the hosts and Phillip scored twice in transition as Tofas closed within 55-57, but Andrea Di Nicolao banked a triple to give Reyer a 55-60 edge at the end of the third quarter. Watt and Bramos hit short jumpers, before Ariel Filloy got a roll on a corner triple to open Reyer's first double-digit margin of the night, 57-67, with 7 minutes left. Another three from Bramos and a pair of jumpers from Daye extended it to 61-76 with 3 minutes to put the game out of reach.

Reyer first to go through

Reyer is the first team from Group B to book a Top 16 spot. This is the second time the club is competing in the EuroCup and the second time it has made the Top 16. The difference, however, is that Reyer already matched the total of six wins that the team had in the entire 2015-16 campaign.

Michael Bramos show

Reyer's veteran sharpshooter in his fourth season in the competition shattered his career-high with 28 points. Bramos, who never scored more than 20 points in a EuroCup game and entered this contest averaging 8.5 points on the season, made 4 of 7 three-pointers, but also 7 of 8 two-pointers against Tofas. Bramos never before made more than 4 two-point shots in a Eurocup game.

Three-point difference

The two teams were pretty close statistically in all but two categories: Tofas made 19 free throws compared to just 3 by the visitors, however, Reyer made 11 threes (on 24 attempts), while the hosts managed just 4 from 19 tries.

Next up

When regular season action resumes in 20 days, both teams will be on the road in Round 9. Tofas travels to play Rytas Vilnius on Tuesday, December 10, before Venice visits Limoges a day later.