The Lions win their fifth straight EuroCup game, edging past a strong Reyer Venezia side in Italy.
The Londoners lost Sam Dekker (ejected) and Donte Grantham (injury) during the game, yet remained resilient to keep their perfect European road record intact.
With 10 games played in this season’s EuroCup campaign, it’s fair to say that the London Lions are certainly exceeding expectations as they continue to cause upsets against some of Europe’s basketball elite.
So far this season, the reigning British champions have fallen short in just two European games - which came against strong competitors in Paris and Hapoel Tel Aviv.
Despite their impressive start to the season, the Lions entered the game coming off an overtime home defeat to the Caledonia Gladiators. With that being said, Petar Božić’s side showed great character to bounce back in Venice just 48 hours later.
Venezia, who were led by Rayjon Tucker’s 20 points, began the game strongly as they converted 30 points in the opening 10 minutes of the game. However, London shot close to 60% on the evening and remained within arms reach of the Italians within the first period.
In the second quarter, the Lions trimmed the home side’s lead to just a singular point after making a sequence of tough buckets. The scoreline was locked in at 51-49 heading into halftime with everything to play for in the remaining 20 minutes.
The two teams went toe-to-toe in the third quarter with just a point separating them heading into the final quarter. Despite their best efforts, nothing seemed to be going London’s way as Venezia drained a shot from behind the arc to beat the buzzer at the end of the third.
Just minutes into the fourth quarter, the visitors - who were without an ejected Sam Dekker - lost Donte Grantham to injury. With a tough task becoming even harder, the Lions responded brilliantly by taking the game by the scruff of the neck.
London went in front but Venezia refused to lie down and competed until the very final whistle. Eventually, the London Lions got over the line in tough circumstances to pull off one of their biggest wins of the season.
Watch the highlights from Reyer Venezia vs London Lions here.
