Nome’s Justinian Jessup hit the winning 3-pointer in OT. Photo courtesy of the EuroCup.
Former NBA draft pick Justinian Jessup of Nome buried a 27-foot jump shot with just 2 seconds left to lift his German pro team to victory Wednesday in the first round of the EuroCup.
Jessup created his own shot in isolation and drained a 3-pointer to give Ulm a 96-93 OT win over Polish power Trefl Sopot.
The 6-foot-6 guard put his defender on skates with a series of dribbles to gather his rhythm before stepping back and swishing a long jumper. It was a thing of beauty.
Jessup started and scored a team-high 20 points and played a team-high 39 minutes. He added six rebounds, one assist, one steal and one blocked shot.
The EuroCup features 20 teams and continues with pool play games to Feb. 5. In all, each team will play 18 games to determine qualifying. The German team’s next game is Tuesday against Spain’s Joventut Badalona.
Jessup was a second-round draft pick in 2020 by the Golden State Warriors out of Boise State University, where he was a second-team All-Mountain West pick and made 325 3s in college (second among Alaskans and trailing only Anchorage’s Trajan Langdon, who made 342 at Duke).
It’s just Round 1 and we got the first game winner of the season✅
What a three-pointer from Justinian Jessup to give @ratiopharmulm the W🎯🎯🎯#RoadToGreatness pic.twitter.com/qQhBSpzLF8
— BKT EuroCup (@EuroCup) September 25, 2024
Jessup has twice played for the Warriors during the NBA Summer League.
For the last four seasons, he’s played pro ball in Australia, Spain and New Zealand before coming to Germany this season.
This past summer, Jessup laced ’em up for a Boise State alumni team in The Basketball Tournament, aka TBT, a 64-team, single-elimination competition with a $1 million winner-take-all grand prize.
In the first round, Jessup led ‘Once a Bronco’ to its first-ever TBT win with a 60-53 victory over New Mexico’s ‘The Enchantment’ after producing 12 points and six rebounds, and hitting the winning free throw to hit the target score.
In the second round, he poured in 24 points against the Houston alumni ‘Forever Coogs’ in a 79-76 loss; that team went on to play for the title.
Justinian Jessup with 24 Points vs. Forever Coogs, 07/21/2024 pic.twitter.com/N6rda5Nqr2
— TBT (@thetournament) July 22, 2024
