U-BT Cluj Napoca hand Happy Casa Brindisi second loss at home

BRINDISI (Italy) - U-BT Cluj Napoca continued their hot start to their debut season in the Basketball Champions League with a 76-71 victory over Happy Casa Brindisi.

Brindisi's captain Jeremy Chappell was not available for the game, but Nick Perkins stepped up with 19 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals on 8-of-13 shooting from the field.

Cluj Napoca basically used a seven-man rotation and six of those players scored.

Turning point: Cluj Napoca went on an 8-0 run to open the third quarter and had a six-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Brindisi completely turned things around in the fourth quarter, scoring 30 points after only scoring 41 combined points in the first three quarters.

They even had an eight-point lead with about five minutes left, but Cluj kept battling back.

Game heroes: Andrija Stipanovic was a force inside for Cluj with 22 points and 6 rebounds, shooting a very efficient 11-of-13 from the field.

Cluj's Patrick Richard caught fire in the final quarter, scoring 14 of his 24 points, to go along with his 5 rebounds and 4 assists on 8-of-15 shooting from the field and 3-of-7 from three-point.

He and Stipanovic combined for 46 of the team's 76 points.

Richard also helped seal the game with a dagger three to give Cluj a 74-71 lead with 42 seconds left.

 

Elijah Stewart struggled to find his shot (2-of-8 FG, 1-of-5 3P), but he made up for it on the defensive end with 4 steals and 3 blocks, including this one (on the second slide):

 

Stats don't lie: Both teams didn't shoot the ball particularly well, as Brindisi went 8-of-29 from three-point and Cluj went 7-of-24 from beyond the arc.

Even though Cluj dominated the time leading (26:34-8:10), the game was a lot closer in the fourth quarter with five lead changes and five times tied.

Brindisi forced 18 turnovers and scored 23 points off those turnovers, but it ultimately didn't hurt Cluj in the end.

Brindisi also dominated fast break points (18-2), but once again, that didn't turn out to be a deciding factor in the end result.

Bottom line: Brindisi fall to 0-2 and have now lost both games on their home court.

The Italian club play their next game on the road in Istanbul against Darussafaka on Nov. 3.

Cluj are now 2-0 in their debut BCL season and currently sit atop Group G.

The Romanian club will be on the road again when they take on Hapoel U-NET Holon in their next game on Nov 3.

They said: "They came out, they had more energy than us at the beginning of the game and we fought back hard, but eventually they ended up coming up with the win," said Perkins. "This is a tough league. You gotta come out and compete every night and tonight, they got the best of us."

"I just felt the need to put the team on my back when I had to," said Richard. "We're a team from Romania, not many teams probably even respect us like that. We're just trying to earn respect, and let people know that we can play, too."