Ulm and Ben Saraf defeated Trento 84-82 in dramatic fashion in EuroCup Gameday 6 action to bump their record up to 4-2 good for 4th place in Group A of the competition.
Throughout the season, Moshe Halickman, who has been covering Ben Saraf since 2021 for the Hebrew side of the Sports Rabbi website will now analyze the Israeli’s performances from a different point of view and from a fun angle in English too! But to find out what his final rating was you’ll need to read all the way until the end of the column.
The Good: Passing
Saraf is Ulm’s floor general and he showed exactly that on the court with his impressive passing ability as head coach Ty Harrelson once again knew that he needed the Israeli on the floor to the tune of 29+ minutes including the entire 4th quarter. Saraf assisted on Noa Essengue’s alley-oop, he recorded a one-handed assist from the left side of the court to the right side outside of the arc, he dished one out while penetrating and assisted on Marcio Santos’s money time when Ulm was down 80-78. But Saraf didn’t stop there as he then assisted on the triple that gave his club a 83-80 lead All in all, Saraf handed out 7 assists compared to only 2 turnovers to put his EuroCup average at 6.2 assists per game good for third in the competition. After ending the first half dwon by 8 points. Ulm made a third quarter comeback thanks to 12 quick points from Alfonso Plummer with a quartet of 3-pointers while Saraf was also a part of the action thanks to his leadership abilities on the floor. Finishing with a +10 means a lot.
The Bad: Early foul problems
Saraf committed two fouls in the opening minutes of the game which is unfortunately not something new and sent him to the bench. But to his credit, later in the game he was careful not to pick up any more fouls and ended the game with just the two he picked up at the start of the contest.
The Good: Rebounding
Saraf did an excellent job rebounding right off the bat juts like he did against Rasta Vechta in his last league game. This time around he grabbed 6 defensive rebounds in total, including one that secured the victory in the final seconds.
The Bad: Midrange shot
Sometime,s Saraf forces a tough shot from midrange after dribbling with a defender in front of him where he isn’t exactly close to the paint and he did that once again in this game and came up short.
The Good: Defense
This was a quality defensive performance by Saraf as he played to his strengths by picking up steals, deflecting the ball and putting pressure on the opposing player’s shots including in crunch time while he also drew a foul as well.
The Good: Step-back 3-pointer
Although Saraf hasn’t being shooting lights out from deep and went 1/3 from beyond the arc including an airball, the one he did hit was crucial in the final frame which was of the step-back variety which is an element that Saraf has been trying to bring to almost every game and he often succeeds in doing so.
The Good: Penetrating
Some of Saraf’s early penetrations opportunities actually got him into a bit of trouble including one where he was called for travelling but then he scored an impressive basket and was fouled.
The Good: Drawing fouls and shooting free throws
Saraf was able to draw an impressive 7 fouls and that translated into going 5/6 from the charity stripe to move his free throws in EuroCup play to 17-20 (85%). But that figure doesn’t tell the entire story…
The Bad: Free throws
Yes yes, you read that right. Scharf initially did a good job from the line going 4/4 opening up the game, but with 16 seconds to go and Ulm ahead 83-82, Saraf was sent to the line and all eyes were on him. He missed the first shot, but due to an infraction the referees allowed him to take the shot again. However, he problem is that Saraf missed again and instead of taking a 3-point lead his team was in front but two after he scored his second free throw. Fortunately, the game ended in a victory and his missed free throw didn’t detract from his performance but all-in-all this was a good experience for him to learn from.
The Rating: 9
14 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds, drawing 7 fouls and recording 24 in efficiency rating is quite the game. What more can one ask for? This was yet another tremendous performance by Saraf, another game in which he came up big in the fourth quarter (7 points) to lead his team to victory which was especially important after two consecutive defeats in the competition after having missed the previous game against Gran Canaria due to a minor injury. With averages of 14.4 points, 6.2 assists, 2.8 rebounds, 1.4 steals and drawing 5.2 fouls on the way to a 16.6 in efficiency rating, Ben Saraf is a EuroCup star, while also not dropping less than double digits in any game. On top of that, he also entered the top 10 in Bleacher Report’s mock draft. Next up is a home date on Saturday night (21:00) against Hamburg in the German league.
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