CLUJ NAPOCA (Romania) -The feel-good story continues. U-BT Cluj Napoca handed Filou Oostende an 86-75 defeat in Romania, climbing to 2-0 in Group K of the Round of 16, extending their win streak to 19 games in all competitions.

The champions of Romania started their season in the BCL Qualifying Rounds, winning all three games there. Cluj are also 17-0 in the Romanian League, with four more wins in the Romanian Cup and another one in the Super Cup, and they went 5-1 in the Regular Season of the BCL, meaning their overall record for the season stands at 32-1.

Turning point: Elijah Stewart and Brandon Brown were amazing all game long, but with a three-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, they decided to switch through gears for one final push.

They not only switched, they turned turbo on, with both of them getting three-pointers in a quick 8-0 run that made it 67-56.

The Belgian champs weren't going away that easily, they kept coming back until the three minute mark. It was a six point game, but Brown then dished an assist to Dustin Hogue, before Stewart had a personal 5-0 run to put the game out of Oostende's reach at +13.

Game heroes: Brown opened up the game with four three-pointers in the first quarter and finished with 25 points and 8 assists on the night. The MVP of December hit 6-of-10 shots from beyond the arc, and only turned the ball once in 32 minutes of action.

Stewart's 17 points were mostly highlights, including three dunks and three triples, and the club legend Patrick Richard played a massive role with 16 points and 9 assists for coach Mihai Silvasan.

Stats don't lie: Bench points aren't exactly Cluj's strength, but they proved they have a deep squad on Monday, winning the second unit points 28-12.

Bottom line: Cluj have been impressive in 2021-22, leading the group with Unicaja, and the champs of Belgium and Ukraine, Filou Oostende and Prometey.

Meanwhile, Oostende will be happy to get back home after starting their Round of 16 campaign with road games in Malaga and Cluj Napoca. They have a chance to win their first game already on Thursday, when Prometey arrive in Belgium.

Levi Randolph scored 20 points, Phil Booth had 18, Amida Brimah collected 14 with 9 rebounds and 3 blocks.

They said:

"I think we played a really good game for 32 minutes, then in the end of the game we were maybe a little bit tired. But we did what the coach told us to do, it's not easy to control everything against a team like this, it's really a great team, they show it the whole season, only one loss... We could not stop everything, but we did a decent job. You have to give credit to the opponent. I know what we can work on, we have a tough schedule in front of us, we need to give everything. Nothing is done yet, we keep believing. To see this atmosphere, it's really amazing. Even if we're an opponent, the fans are crazy good and it feels good for us to play in front of them, of course." - Pierre-Antoine Gillet, Filou Oostende

"It's not a game of 11 points, for sure. Last five minutes we fall down and received 19 points, some of them really lucky. In global, we played decent, we stopped their transition, and I can be satisfied because this was a much better team game than we had last week in Malaga. We improved. But apparently we need to be there for 40 minutes. I just ask for respect for our team. This is what bothers me. Second game in a row we have zero respect for our team. But that's not my problem right now. We shot four free throws in 40 minutes." - Filou Oostende head coach Dario Gjergja

"We wanted to come out and try to set the tone defensively, be aggressive on offense, and just kind of protect our home court. We knew this was going to be a tough game, I feel like we did a good job of controlling the game on both ends. We had some mental mistakes, but we were able to correct them." - Brandon Brown, U-BT Cluj Napoca

"It was a tough game, we knew it was going to be like that. We knew that we needed to be consistent for 40 minutes, we knew that the game will not be won in the first, second or third quarter. The game is won by the team that works harder during all 40 minutes. We were better defensively in the second half, we had some fast breaks and nice plays that bring also the support of the fans to a higher level. That brought us some energy, energy that we needed for the end of the game. It was just the second game in this group, nothing changed for us, it's important but we are not qualified yet. We need to stay humble." - U-BT Cluj Napoca head coach Mihai Silvasan