ALBA Berlin played without six of their core players against EuroCup team Frutti Extra Bursaspor and dropped their first game at the Frutti Extra Cup in Turkey 75-89 (20-26, 16-24, 25-21, 14-18). In addition to the injured frontcourt players Thiemann, Lammers, Koumadje and Nikic, Blatt and Zoosman were also missing due to the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday.
As if Israel Gonzalez had not enough to deal with, Louis Olinde contracted a wound on his mouth that had to be stitched so that he could keep playing. Not much worked for the German team in the first half, when they were down by 16 (36-50).
The hosts scored easily, hitting 7 of their 11 three-point attempts in that period of time. Nevertheless, the remaining ALBA players never gave up and fought back to 70-71 in the 34th minute after being 17 points behind.
18-year-old Christoph Tilly used his 14 minutes to score 6 points and Rikus Schulte completed his first ten minutes with the ALBA professionals. The top performers for the EuroLeague team were captain Luke Sikma with 17 points, followed by Marcus Eriksson (14 pts) and Jaleen Smith with 11 pts. On the other end, Allerik Freeman went for 26 points in less than 30 minutes for Bursaspor, coached by Dusan Alimpijevic.
Frutti Extra Bursaspor: Freeman 26 (10/15 FG, 4 assists), Needham 10 (10 assists), Bitim 11 (5 assists), Hayes 6 (10 rebs.), Dudzinski 12, Guven 10, Milosavlejic 4, Al 2, Batuk 5, Turen 3.
ALBA Berlin: Lo 2 (1/6 FG, 9 assists), Delow 4, Eriksson 14, Tilly 6, Sikma 17 (8/11 FG, 6 rebs.), Smith 11 (5 rebs.), Mattisseck 8, Schneider 5, Olinde 3, Peno 5.
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