Ratiopharm Ulm grabbed a must win at home against Bilbao Basket after an 85-80 final score.

Quarter Finals are on and our Tuesday game took us to Germany where Ratiopharm Ulm battled against Uxue Bilbao Basket where playing at home became essential to beat a powerful Spanish team.

John Bryant was the man of the match scoring 30 points on a 10-15 shooting performance from 2 points which he added 7 boards for an index rating of 30. The home squad had three other players in double digits but the American was the star of the game on both sides of the court.

On the Bilbao side, the starting lineup played a great game all of them scoring in double digits with letal shooter Kostas Vasileadis scoring 21 points continuing his great exhibitions overall this season in Eurocup.

Looking at a statistical standpoint, we expected a pretty even match and that’s what happened with both teams shooting well from the floor almost at the same rating only with the turnover category being atypical with Ulm making 14 and Bilbao only 7 (which is remarkable since the Germans on the game).

The Spaniards started the game in a great pace on offense finishing the first quarter with a 18-30 score led by the “Greek duo” Nikos Zisis and Kostas Vasileadis.

In the second quarter John Bryant “appeared” for Ulm and the offense looked more fluent cutting the deficit to only 5 before halftime, 42-45 with the home crowd going nuts in the final seconds of the first half with a 2 point basket from Gunther.

Both teams entered the second half with a tougher mentality on defence which led to a low scorer quarter where the visitants took the lead with only 7 seconds left in an Allan Ray layup for a 60-58.

Last 10 minutes of the game were brutal for Uxue who suffered an 11-2 run which was crucial for the final score since they never had the weapons to make a real comeback against an established German squad for a final result of 85-80.