Benfica Tie Ferro-ZNTU In Shoot-Out

Benfica and Ferro-ZNTU drew 105-105 in a high-scoring shoot-out in the first leg of the Eurochallenge Qualifying Round on Wednesday in Lisbon.

Ferro will now look to its home court advantage in the second game on October 6 in Ukraine.

Both teams shot the ball well (+ 55% from two-point range) and had multiple players wrack up big numbers.

Ferro had five players score 13 or more points.

Keddric Mays led the visitors with 21 points, while Kevin Tiggs and Christian Burns had 19 points apiece.

Benfica had six players with 11 points or more.

Heshimu Evans led the home side with 19 points to go with 10 rebounds and 5 assists in an all-round performance, while Cordell Henry and Antonio Tavares had 15 and 14 points, respectively.

Ferro opened an early 22-10 lead capped by a three-pointer by Olexandr Shaposhnykov, but Lisboa fought back to tie the score at 24-24 at the end of the first period on the strength of six points from Elivs Evora.

The home team extended to a 54-48 lead at the halftime break on a jumper by Miguel Minhava.

A three-pointer by Cordell Henry early in the third gave Benfica their biggest lead at 57-48.

But Ferro did not let the game get away and after an offensive exhibition went ahead 78-77 heading into the third.

The visitors grabbed a 90-84 lead on a jumper by Tiggs with five minutes to play but they could not hold on to the advantage down the stretch.

Quotes Benfica vs Ferro

Benfica Head Coach Henrique Vieira
"It's a result that keeps us alive. It's all open for the second game. Despite the draw we can win away and pass through. We played against a very strong team. They have more experience in this kind of competition than us. We started very anxious the game and a little bit nervous. We'll try to win away. It won't be easy but we have all that is needed to win."

Ferro Head Coach Kyrylo Bolshakov
"Benfica is a very good team. I liked what I saw from them. I didn't know many things about Benfica, but they showed a very good team. It was a good game and every player have done the job well. We felt some problems because two or our players were hurt and because of that I gave them few minutes in the field and our game lacked them. We suffered 105 points, it's too much and we want to improve the defensive chapter if we want to win at home"