Ostend downs Dijon for its third win

Ostend got back to the winning ways and into the hunt for a place in the Last 32, defeating JDA Dijon 80-71 on Wednesday. Ostend improved to 3-3 record in Group B, while Dijon dropped to 4-2, and neither team holds a tiebreak advantage since the game in Round 1 finished with a 9-point Dijon win. In this game, the hosts took control with a 26-5 run which bridged the first and second quarters, and taking 40-23 halftime lead. Margin reached 24 points in the third, but Dijon rallied, however, the visitors never got closer than 7 points the rest of the way. Mateusz Ponitka had 17 points for Ostend, John Prince scored 15, and Quentin Serron netted 13 on 3 of 4 from the long range. For Dijon, Andre Harris also had the line of 13 points on 3 of 4 from downtown. Kris Joseph scored 13 points, too, and Erving Walker had 12 in defeat.

Ostend downs Dijon for its third win Ostend got back to the winning ways and into the hunt for a place in the Last 32, defeating JDA Dijon 80-71 on Wednesday. Ostend improved to 3-3 record in Group B, while Dijon dropped to 4-2, and neither team holds a tiebreak advantage since the game in Round 1 finished with a 9-point Dijon win. In this game, the hosts took control with a 26-5 run which bridged the first and second quarters, and taking 40-23 halftime lead. Margin reached 24 points in the third, but Dijon rallied, however, the visitors never got closer than 7 points the rest of the way. Mateusz Ponitka had 17 points for Ostend, John Prince scored 15, and Quentin Serron netted 13 on 3 of 4 from the long range. For Dijon, Andre Harris also had the line of 13 points on 3 of 4 from downtown. Kris Joseph scored 13 points, too, and Erving Walker had 12 in defeat.

Dijon grabbed an early lead behind a three-pointer from Steven Gray, and a pair of baskets from Joseph, including a layup-plus-free throw for 8-14. But Jared Berggren and Prince got Ostend going defensively, each with a block, and both players contributed on the offensive end – Berggren had couple of baskets, and Prince scored 7 points, including a basket-plus-foul, as Ostend took 22-19 lead. A run continued in the second quarter, during which the hosts did not allow a single basket for more than 7 minutes. Meanwhile, Prince sparked a 12-0 run that had six different scorers for 34-19 margin. Jacques Alingue snapped the drought with a pair of dunks, but Ostend answered on each with a triple – first from Prince, then from Serron – and took 40-23 lead into halftime.

The hosts got a triple and a fastbreak layup from Wes Wilkinson at the start of the third quarter, before Ponitka made it 49-25 with a three-pointer of his own. Back-to-back triples from Harris and Walker during a 0-8 run cut the deficit, but Ponitka hit another triple for 54-34. Baskets from Zach Moss, and triples from Erving and Aldo Curti helped Dijon to get within 59-46 after three quarters, before Prince with a basket-plus-free throw and Serron with a triple made it a 17-point affair early in the fourth, 65-48. But with tiebreakers in mind, there was no giving up in Dijon. Joseph strung together 6 points, including a three-pointer, and Gray hit another one from downtown for 68-57. A triple from Harris got Dijon within 70-62, and below the magic 9-point margin. Ponitka had a dunk, Harris answered with a layup, before a triple from Pierre-Antoine Gillet extended it to 75-64. Harris hit a jumper for Dijon, and after free throws on both ends, his three-pointer made it 78-71. But Ponitka answered with a layup to round out the scoring, and leave the margin at 9 points, same as it was in Round 1 in Dijon.