Walden headlines Team of the Week to conclude Quarter-Finals
MUNICH (Germany) - The second leg of the Quarter-Finals came close to leaving UNET Holon red-faced, but Corey Walden came to the rescue to get the Israeli side out of a serious logjam in Hungary.
MUNICH (Germany) - The second leg of the Quarter-Finals came close to leaving UNET Holon red-faced, but Corey Walden came to the rescue to get the Israeli side out of a serious logjam in Hungary and into the next round of the Play-Offs.
Having seen his team squander a 33-point lead from the home leg, the 26-year-old guard rose to the occasion in overtime to get Holon past the checkpoint with a favorable margin despite a 101-74 defeat to Alba Fehervar.
Headlining the Team of the Week with a competition-best efficiency mark of 30, Walden finished the energy-draining and nerve-wracking contest with 24 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 steals to his name.
A dominant force throughout the season, Jordan Heath of Alba played a key role in what would have been one of the most incredible comebacks in European basketball history, signing off from FIBA Europe Cup with 18 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and a block.
The dynamics were similar in the Quarter-Final between Dinamo Sassari and Pinar Karsiyaka, with the Turkish side coming close to overturning a 19-point first-leg deficit but eventually falling short in what turned out to be an 83-83 draw.
On fire from the field, Karsiyaka's scoring ace Sek Henry collected 24 points, 5 assists, 3 rebounds and a steal to put the Izmir side up by as many as 26 points before their second-half collapse. On the other side, Achille Polonara netted 14 points, grabbed 8 rebounds and registered a pair of assists and a steal. Both players earned spots on the Team of the Week.
Elsewhere, s.Oliver Wurzburg guard Jordan Hulls turned in his 11th consecutive double-digit scoring performance in the competition to knock out Bakken Bears with an 86-70 victory at home in Germany, despite coming into the game with a one-point deficit.
The sharpshooter punished the visitors from Aarhus with four long-range buckets en route to a 19-point, 5-assist and 3-rebound effort to match his season-high in efficiency with an index of 24.
FIBA