May 24, 2012
Italian TIM Cup Quarterfinals: February 8-9, 2007
Terrell Lyday - Benetton Clashes among three Euroleague teams and a ULEB Cup contender highlighted the second day of quarterfinals in the Italian TIM Cup on Friday at PalaMalaguti in Bologna. In a clash of Euroleague teams, Benetton Treviso outgunned Lottomatica Roma 75-67 to move to the semifinals. Terrell Lyday led Benetton with 20 ponts. Meanwhile, Montepaschi confirmed why it has been among the Italian League and ULEB Cup leaders all season when it blasted Eldo Napoli 86-69 in their quarterfinal matchup. Joseph Forte paced Montepaschi with 18 points. On Thursday, VidiVici Bologna and Armani Jeans Milano advanced to the semifinals with a pair of hard-earned wins . Milano outscored Premiata Montegranaro 8-1 in the final two-and-a-half minutes for a 74-70 win, while Bologna outlasted Whirlpool Varese 69-62. Montepaschi and Benetton face off in one of Saturday's semifinals, Milano and Bologna in the other.

In their Friday quarterfinal, Roma led early, but by halftime Benetton was holding double-digit advantages that never dropped below 3 points after that and reached as high as 14. Roma had a scare as Dejan Bodiroga left with a finger injury, but he returned later in the game. Lyday hit 4 three-pointers among his 20 points for Benetton, while Marbus Goree added 17 and Nikos Zisis 11. David Hawkins had 16 points for Roma and Mire Chatman 15. Meanwhile, Montepaschi led from the opening tipoff to the final buzzer, taking its first double-digit lead after just 4 minutes. The closest that Napoli came after that was 45-42 early in the third quarter, whereupon Montepaschi reeled off an 11-3 run to take full control the rest of the way. To Forte's 18 points, Romain Sato added 15, Lonny Baxter 13 and Terrell McIntyre 11. Mason Rocca was huge for Napoli with 21 points and 13 rebounds, but only Ansu Sesay joined him in double digits with 10 points.

Milano and Montegranaro were neck-and-neck for nearly 38 minutes before AJ closed strong for the win. Montegranaro led by 1 after 10 minutes, it was tied at 38-38 at halftime and Milano led 52-49 after three periods. Sven Schultze tied the game at 69-69 before Joseph Blair gave Milano the lead for good with two minutes to play. Luca Vitali and Eyinmisan Nikagbatse missed threes on the ensuing possessions before Nate Green sank a pair from the line, helping Milano to the crucial win. Schultze finished with 16 points, Kiwane Garris 12 and Blair had 11 points and 8 rebounds for Milano. Valerio Amoroso scored 17, Ron Slay 13 and Randolph Childress 12 for Montegranaro.

Vlado Ilievski, Dusan Vukcevic, Brett Blizzard and Andrea Michelori tallied 12 points apiece to lead Bologna's well-balanced attack. Delonte Holland opened the game by scoring the first 13 points for Whirlpool Varese, but Blizzard beat the buzzer from downtown to fix the first quarter score at 16-16. Michelori, assisted in the open court by Travis Best, pushed ViviVici ahead to 32-24 only for Varese to climb back to 35-31 at halftime. A 10-3 run early in the third quarter created the decisive cushion, giving Bologna a 45-34 advantage, which became 51-45 at the end of the third quarter. In the last quarter, VidiVici held its safety cushion to advance to the semifinals. Holland finished with 13 points to lead Varese.



Thursday, February 08, 2007
Euroleague.net

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