Paris leads in the EuroCup final. They convincingly defeated their French rival Bourg with a score of 77:64. The EuroLeague is very close.
Who else but T.J. Shorts, the EuroCup MVP, scored the first points? He then assisted Leon Kratzer. Jacquan Lewis scored the first points for the visitors, but Sebastian Herrera responded with a three-pointer. Both teams were quite nervous, especially the guests who made many mistakes early on. The hosts reached 15:7 after Malcolm’s three-pointer. After the Chilean’s basket, the Parisians extended their lead to plus 10, and then to plus 12 after Justin Simon’s basket. After the first ten minutes, the score was 23:11 for the team in black.
Kratzer scored at the beginning of the second quarter, and then Lewis hit two three-pointers in a row. After another time-out, Paris showed that it didn’t affect them and went on an 8:0 run. The team led by the Finnish coach dominated the game. They quickly reached a plus 20 lead and played extremely fast and efficiently. Hifi took over from Shorts and scored 10 points in the second quarter. The halftime score was 54:31.
The three-point shooting was decisive. Bourg missed several shots, while the hosts made eight out of 20 attempts from beyond the arc. The lead was already plus 27 at the beginning of the third quarter after a three-pointer by Jantunen. They simply dominated the game. Bourg seemed mentally absent, as if they didn’t show up for the match. This quarter saw a drop in quality, but the team from the French capital maintained a convincing lead.
Julien scored a three-pointer after two and a half minutes in the final quarter. Then the same player committed a hard foul on Hifi, leading to Shorts scoring. Isaiah Mike then woke up a bit, but overall, the performance of Fauthoux’s team seemed quite unconvincing. Risacher dunked after an alley-oop, reducing the deficit to below 20 points for the visitors. Parisians went without points for a long time, but Kessens broke that streak. The team from the “Adidas Arena” relaxed a bit towards the end but calmly closed out the match.
Of course, Shorts led his team with 15 points. He was followed by Hifi with 13, as they often work together. On the other side, the only players in double digits were Risacher with 11 points and Lewis with 10.
Arena: Adidas Arena, Paris
Referees: Javor, Aliaga, Silva
PARIS:BOURG 77:64 (23:11, 31:20,11:12,12:21)
Paris: Ward, Jantunen 3, Kratzer 7, Shorts 15, Hifi 13, Denis, Kessens 4, Malcolm 6, Ngouama 7, Simon 9, Sy 2, Herrera 11.
Bourg: Risacher 11, Mike 9, Kokila 3, Morgan 2, Lewis 10,, Benitez 5, Brown 10, Courby, Julien 9, Massa, Rowland, Salash.