Lions struggle valiantly however fall simply brief to Turk Telecom in 7DAYS EuroCup

7Days EuroCup
London Lions 84-89 Turk Telecom Ankara (19-26, 19-18, 24-26, 22-19)
(Lions – Dekker 25, Oni 21, Zubcic 14; Ankara – Bouteille 21, Jones 16, Eric 13)

In tonight’s 7DAYS EuroCup motion, the London Lions welcomed Turk Telecom Ankara to the Copper Field for his or her final dwelling sport of the group phases, combating valiantly and simply developing brief 84-89.

Axel Bouteille led Turk Telecom with 21 factors and 7 rebounds, adopted by Tyrique Jones with 16 factors and 9 rebounds, in a sport that was received on the boards, with the guests having 48 and the hosts simply 30.

Sam Dekker and Miye Oni put in stellar performances for the Lions with 25 and 21 factors respectively, however the hosts couldn’t safe the W.

The sport began with London urgent on defence and dashing to a fast 7-4 lead.

Nevertheless, Ankara rapidly realised break the press and with quick ball motion they managed to go on a 6-0 run and lead 10-7.

Regardless of the Turkish facet managing to interrupt the press on a number of events, the Lions continued urgent, which allowed their opponents to get a double-digit lead (12-22), when Nathan Sestina was discovered huge open within the nook and drained the triple.

The guests continued their offensive masterclass and with stunning ball motion managed to seek out Michael Eric below the basket who dunked it with authority (16-26).

With only a few seconds left within the quarter, Turk Telecom’s defence fell aside fully and allowed Nelson to run as much as the 6.75m line and nail the buzzer beater three, closing out the primary interval 19-26.

The Lions began the second quarter on high – similar to they did within the first – and decreased the deficit to only two factors (26-28) after two-and-a-half minutes, when Dekker went coast to coast and completed with a finger roll.

The American ahead was feeling himself and a minute later he laid the ball in with an exquisite spin transfer (32-36).

The British facet continued to remain shut, via their wonderful hustle.

Tomislav Zubcic managed to maintain the ball inbound by launching himself on the sideline, Jordan Taylor ran the ground and dished it off to Oni for the straightforward two, to make it a one possession sport as soon as extra (34-36).

That pressured coach Can right into a timeout and when Ankara got here out of the timeout, they broke the London defence aside and located Sestina below the basket for the layup (34-38).

A large putback one-handed jam by Erkan Yilmaz prolonged the guests’ lead as soon as extra (35-40), earlier than Luke Nelson’s third triple of the evening introduced the hole again all the way down to 4 (38-42).

The second half began with two consecutive threes by Zubcic from the identical spot within the nook, that made it a one possession sport (44-46).

Simply a few minutes later, the hosts managed to get their noses in entrance for the primary time because the opening quarter (49-48), when Oni drained one more shot from downtown.

The previous NBAer then managed to attain from past the arc as soon as once more (52-50), giving his workforce the lead after Ankara had regained the benefit.

The Turkish facet then went forward once more (52-53) when Bouteille threw up the cross for Jones for the alley-oop slam, to serve up the highest spotlight of the sport.

One other three for the Lions, this time from Dekker, noticed them enhance their lead additional to 55-53.

Simply when it regarded just like the momentum was firmly on the facet of the hosts, Turk Telecom went on an unimaginable 14-0 run and turned the sport on its head.

That run gave the guests a double-digit lead as soon as once more (56-67), after Bouteille crossed Josh Sharma and completed with a layup.

The third interval led to an analogous method to the primary, with Jerian Grant connecting from behind the arc with only a few seconds left to play.

The Ankara defence nonetheless had one other defensive breakdown, which allowed Oni to walk up and hit a buzzer beater three, to shut out the third 62-70.

A triple by Bouteille to start out the ultimate 10 minutes gave the Turks a double-digit lead as soon as extra (62-73).

With simply over 5 minutes left to play, a fast 5-0 run by Dekker – with two free throws and a triple – noticed the Lions shut the deficit to 5 (71-76), turning the sport right into a thriller.

Oni then hit his fifth three of the sport, taking him to 19 factors and his workforce inside touching distance of their opponents (74-79).

The 25-year-old then went straight at his defender on the following possession and scored a mid-range jumper, to make it a one possession sport (76-79), forcing Ankara right into a timeout.

As the sport entered into crunch time, Dekker managed to make it only a two-point sport (79-81), when he hit one other three.

The Lions nonetheless have been unable to finish the comeback and Jones sealed the win for his workforce with simply over a minute to play when he blocked Oni’s three-point shot, ran the ground and dunked the ball to provide one other spectacular spotlight.

So as to add salt to London’s wounds, high scorer Dekker went off injured on the final play when he landed on the defender’s foot when pulling up for 3 and rolled his ankle.

With this loss, the Lions drop to a report of 7-10, whereas Turk Telecom transfer as much as 12-5 and safe home-court benefit within the playoffs.

Lions’ ultimate EuroCup group stage sport can be subsequent Tuesday (March 28) at 7:30pm in opposition to Paris in France, the place they hope to complete the common season with a win, earlier than embarking on their first European playoff expertise.