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Jonas Wohlfarth-Bottermann made a useful 15-point contribution for Telekom Baskets |
Telekom Baskets wrapped up their successful EuroChallenge Group L campaign with an 86-72 victory but they were made to work for it by Tsmoki-Minsk.
Having already secured their place in the quarter-finals alongside fellow German club EWE Baskets, Telekom scored win number four of the group stages with a solid if hardly rousing victory over the group's basement boys.
Indeed, they found themselves trailing for large parts of the first half, with a 7-0 spurt powering the visitors into a 23-16 lead on Vidas Ginevicius' jump-shot early in the second quarter.
Telekom realised that this was not going to get it done and swiftly responded with a 12-1 run that put them 28-24 up on David McCray's three-pointer.
Dzianis Korshuk responded in kind for the visitors as the teams traded blows before the half-time buzzer arrived with Telekom leading 43-35.
Jared Jordan's jump-shot and Benas Veikalas started the second half by giving Telekom their biggest lead at 48-35.
But just in case there was any complacency creeping into Telekom's game, they were given a wake-up call with a 10-0 Tsmoki charge making it 48-45 on Tierre Brown's jump-shot.
Veikalas and Kyle Weems led the Telekom response and the latter's dunk made it 65-57 before the end of the period.
This time Telekom had learned their lesson and they successfully held the visitors at arm's length the rest of the way.
Jonas Wohlfarth-Botterman and Weems led Telekom with 15 points each while Veikalas and Chris Ensminger collected 10 each.
Brown's 18 points led Tsmoki with Aliaksandr Pustahvar and Korshuk adding 14 apiece.