Europe Cup: s. Oliver Würzburg defeats CSM CSU Oradea 91:82

A fourth straight win for s.Oliver Würzburg and its first home victory in the FIBA Europe Cup: After a sluggish start, the home side stepped up the pace in offense from the second quarter on and finally ran out deserved winners by 91:82 (33:41) against the Romanian champions CSM CSU Oradea. The club from Lower Franconia has thus defended top spot in Group A and needs just one win from the remaining two games to qualify for the second group phase.

Head Coach Denis Wucherer began with the starting five of Skyler Bowlin, Jordan Hulls, Xavier Cooks, Perry Ellis and Gabriel Olaseni, but it did not find any sort of rhythm in offense at first. Although Olaseni buried a jump shot to tie the scores at 2:2 in the second minute, the home side then suffered a barren spell lasting minutes. After Wucherer called his first timeout with the score at 2:11, Würzburg conceded just four points up to the end of the first period, but itself only scored four as well, and so trailed 6:15 after the first ten minutes.

At the start of the second quarter, the visitors then pulled away after a three by Marcus Ginyard (8:20). However, Würzburg slowly but surely began to tick over in attack: Captain Kresimir Loncar and Florian Koch reduced the deficit to 14:20 with buckets from downtown and by then at the latest the 1,250 spectators were right behind their team.

Yet whatever the home side tried in attack, Oradea’s players always hit back with the right response. As a result, the Würzburg hardly managed to cut the gap by the break, despite the fact that it scored 27 points in the second period.

Yet the comeback was not over: s.Oliver Würzburg turned the game around in the third period. It produced a run of six points without reply right after the break to make it 39:41, but the Romanian side also struck back again with seven points in succession. After a further timeout, however, Kreso Loncar then drained his second three to spark a 14:5 spurt that enabled the home side to tie the scores for the first time since the opening spell. Both sides then traded three-pointers up to the end of the third period: Florian Koch added two for the home side, while Muhamed Pasalic and Marcus Ginyard followed suit for Oradea. However, Jordan Hulls also made a lay-up in between, with the result that s.Oliver Würzburg took a narrow 61:59 lead into the final quarter.

The Romanian team also put up a tough fight for a long time in the fourth period and the lead changed hands several times – for the last time in the 34th minute, when Jordan Hulls drained one of his two threes to make it 71:68. The encounter was as good as sealed in the 37th minute when Würzburg stole possession to enable Skyler Bowlin to score (77:74) and Perry Ellis then drained a three to make it 80:74. After that, the visitors never got closer than three points. s.Oliver Würzburg scored a total of 85 points in the last three periods and finished up with a 3-point field goal percentage of 63.

“When we move the ball so well in attack like we did today, that not only reaps success, but is also great to watch. We’re happy at winning and taking an important step toward qualifying for the next round,” said Wucherer

Source: www.soliver-wuerzburg.de