SLUC Nancy squeak past Bennet Cantu 76-75 in a humdinger - Euroleague Recap
In a last minute thriller, witnessed by a capacity crowd at the Palais Des Sports Jean Weille, SLUC Nancy managed to hold their nerves and grab a 76-75 win over Bennet Cantu.
Nancy were leading by three points 76-73 with ten seconds remaining in the game and Cantu needed a three to take the game in extra time. The French side however ensured that Cantu do not get a free look at the rim. The immense
pressure ensured that Maarten Leunen settled for a jumper just two seconds before the buzzer to make it 76-75.
After this loss, Cantu have dropped to 3-3 and need to win their next few games to keep their chances of reaching the top 16 alive. Nancy’s coach, Jean-Luc Monschau was satisfied with his team’s performance but thought his team
could have won this game more convincingly after acquiring a healthy lead at one time.
Pape Philippe Amagou led Nancy with 18 points including a perfect 3 on 3 shooting from the long range. Jamal Shuler added 12 while Victor Samnick accumulated 11 points as both the big guns, Nicolas Batum and Adrien Moerman, failed
to produce significant numbers.
For Cantu, Leunen scored 18 points and pulled down 9 rebounds while Vladimir Micov finished with 14 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists.
Nancy crafted a 6-4 lead early but Maarten drilled a three to initiate a 9 point unanswered blitz that took Cantu to a 13-6 advantage. Nancy bounced back in next few minutes though and ended the quarter trailing by just 4 points
20-16.
An early 7-0 spurt then took Nancy ahead 23-20, however a three followed by a free throw from Cantu’s Gianluca Basile helped Cantu in regaining the lead.
From there on, it was all Nancy and by the time, the teams headed for the locker rooms, they were leading comfortably at 45-33.
Cantu however did not let Nancy run away with the show and erupted with a 12 point burst at the start of third quarter to make it 45 all. Nancy responded with a 6-0 effort in the next few minutes but Cantu rebounded to not only
cut the lead but get ahead by 62-56 at the end of the third quarter.
With the game slipping away, Amagou, Moerman and Akin Akingbala combined to constitute a 10-2 run to once again take Nancy into the lead 70-68 with just few minutes remaining in the game.
Things got even worse for Cantu when Moerman and Shuler scored back to back jumpers to make it 74-68. However Cantu bounced back to make it a one point game at 74-73, only to see Jamal Shuler fire to free throws at the other end.
They tried hard to shave the lead off, but eventually failed to close out the game.
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