By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
ALBA Berlin put on a dominant performance, especially so in defense, as they got an 81-53 home win against UNICS Kazan in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague.
With this win, the Germans bounced back from a four-game losing streak and improved to 7-15 in the standings while UNICS stayed among the playoff-bound teams with 12-10.
ALBA had an upper hand throughout the whole game, winning all four quarters, but the crucial stretch came in the third period. They won the quarter with a 20-9 scoreline which broke the 20-point margin and left no doubt about the victor of the match.
Maodo Lo was the top scorer of the winning side with 16 points while Jaleen Smith followed with 14 and Luke Sikma with ten points. Sikma also grabbed nine rebounds.
For UNICS, Lorenzo Brown scored 12 and Tonye Jekiri ten points. The latter dominated the boards for an 11-rebound double-double.
One day off goes a long way
ALBA Berlin coach Israel Gonzalez was very proud of his players, stating that it’s been very hard to recover from the COVID-19 hits recently.
“We played very good. We passed the ball much better in the second half and I have to be happy for the players winning this game. People maybe cannot understand how difficult it has been for us to come back from Coronavirus, and how much energy we have to give to compete every day. These guys have done something very special and we should be very happy.”
Jaleen Smith was thankful for one thing. A day off.
“We had a day off on Monday! We had a two-week span without a day off, either travelling or playing a game, but our day off on Monday got our legs back under us and we played really good defense today. I think I know how to play with the team now, the style that Israel wants from me, and I think I fit pretty good with it.”