05 October, 2021
15 May, 2022
3 Tyler Ennis (TOFA)
08/02/2022
Game Report
to read

Sending a message: Tofas Bursa flirt with record win, remain perfect at 3-0

TREVISO (Italy) - Tofas Bursa are a different team since the start of 2022. Coach Ahmet Caki saw his team climb to 8-1 this year, with a massive win over Nutribullet Treviso in Italy, 92-51, keeping their unbeaten 3-0 record in the Round of 16.

Treviso drop to 0-2, they weren't able to put up a fight without their star center Henry Sims. Tofas were close to getting the record for the biggest road win in BCL history, but Lenovo Tenerife's 47-point win over SikeliArchivi Capo d'Orlando from 2017-18 remains the biggest one.

This is the only other 40+ point road win in the history of the Basketball Champions League. The biggest home win also belongs to Tenerife, +59 against Opava back in 2018-19.

Turning point: Tip-off. It was a one way street since Tofas held Treviso to 10 points in the first quarter and opened a 22-point lead at the half. They did not allow coach Massimiliano Menetti and his players to get any closer the rest of the way, leading by 42 points at one point late in the fourth quarter.

Game heroes: Tomislav Zubcic needed less than 15 minutes to score 16 points, Tyler Ennis also counted to 16 on 7-of-9 shooting, Muhsin Yasar dominated off the bench with 14 points, Kasey Shepherd got 14 as a starter, and Berk Ugurlu was also in double figures with 13.

Honorable mention - Yigit Arslan with 4 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block.

 

Stats don't lie: Pick your poison. Tofas shot the ball 67 percent from the field, including 9-of-15 from beyond the arc, while Treviso hit only 17 of their 56 field goal attempts, including 6-of-30 from three-point range.

Tofas were +14 in rebounds, +12 in points from turnovers, +19 in fast break points, +28 in points in the paint, +16 in bench points.

Bottom line: Tofas Bursa are in fine shape right now, winning eight of their nine games in 2022, climbing back into Play-Off contention in Turkey, and rising to the top of their group in the Round of 16 here, heading to the break with a perfect 3-0 record.

Meanwhile, Nutribullet Treviso ran out of fuel at the end of a tough stretch over the last ten days. They have played five games since January 30, and in a season that saw them play 35 games already, the February mid-season break looks like just what they need.

Giordano Bortolani was their only man in double digits, scoring 17 of his 19 points in the first half.

 

They said:

"It was a good reaction from us, coming here playing against a tough team, knowing it would be a good environment. We wanted to come out and play our game, we know they can score, so we just wanted to focus on defense. I thought we did a pretty good job." - Tyler Ennis, Tofas Bursa

"We respect this Treviso team, they have their own style, shooting a lot of three-point shots, and we tried to prepare ourselves to begin the game with good defense. I believe my team reacted very well, because three days ago we lost a bad game in the Turkish League, but after that we prepared the team and having that kind of reaction from a team is really important." - Tofas Bursa head coach Ahmet Caki

"It's been a tough game, a weird game because we didn't play as we know, we didn't play our basketball. They were up for the whole game." - Matteo Imbro, Nutribullet Treviso

"To be honest, this is the fifth game in ten days, out of a situation where we really were in trouble. Starting from last Sunday, flying to Turkey, playing two games in the League, and unfortunately, when the energy is finished, it's finished. We are a little bit frustrated. Today, from the beginning we realized that the energy from the team was finished. This is a proud team, we didn't compete, but we didn't compete because our mental and physical energy was finished." - Nutribullet Treviso head coach Massimiliano Menetti