Reestablishing its homecourt in Sopot, Poland as a fortress yet again, Prokom Trefl earned its first Group B win of the season with a solid 80-64 decision over visiting Cibona on Wednesday. Both teams are now tied with 1-1 records. Prokom ruled inside, with its big men combining for 61 points. Goran Jagodnik led the way with 21, while Adam Wojcik added 16, Michael Andersen 14 and Tomas Masiulis 10 to go with 10 rebounds for a double-double. Prokom made 60% of its two-point shots (26 for 43) and outrebounded Cibona 33 to 24. The visitors got 14 points from Damir Markota and 11 from Davor Kus but suffered from poor shooting otherwise.
Trading baskets started early, two-pointers inside by Mate Skelin of Cibona and Tomas Masiulis of Prokom, three-pointers by Wojcik and Penn. The tie scores persisted through a Masiulis layup that made it 9-9, but to that Prokam added a triple by Jagodnik and a layup by Istvan Nemeth for a 7-0 run to a 14-9 lead. Damir Markota tied it himself for cibona with a triple and a drive, then did it again at 18-18 with another inside basket. Andersen made his first 2 attempts on the floor for Prokom, but Penn matched him with a jumper to end the quarter, appropriately, with the score tied 20-20, the seventh tie in 10 minutes.
Defenses ruled the early second quarter until Wojcik put Prokom ahead with a jumper. The hosts kept looking inside and got consecutive baskets from Andersen for a 26-20 lead. Kus finally scored for guests, but Wojcik responded with his second bomb from a downtowm and Prokom escaped for 29-22 lead. Cibona made three free throws to cut the gap, but was hurt with Skelin's fourth foul. Christian Dalmau pushed Prokom on offense, assisting on a dunk by Filip Dylewicz, whose free throw on the next possesion gave Prokom its biggest advantage, 36-28. Thanks to a late steal and layup at the buzzer by Kus, Cibona was able to get within 36-32 at the half.
When Zuza, who was not supposed to play, and Davor Marcelic made baskets at the begining of the third quarter, Cibona had tied 36-36. But just 2 minutes later, Cibona was taking a timeout due to a 10-2 Prokom response that featured a pair of baskets by Wojcik. A triple by Tomas Pacesas boosted Prokom's advantage to double digits, 49-38, but Bennett Davison matched him on a basket-plus-free throw for Cibona. Prokom was finding its rhythm now on offense, and even dunks by Davison and Markota couldn't help Cibona as Jagodnik scored 5 consecutive points to make it 60-45. Cibone tried zone defense, but Prokom still had the game under controll at 62-48 after 30 minutes.
Cibona tried to come back in the final quarter, but Prokom's high-level defense allowed the guests just a single basket over 3 minutes. Meanwhile, the hosts used their rebounding advantage to push ahead 69-52 following Nemeth's bomb from downtown. Marin Rozic answered for Cibona, but Jagodnik matched him. With less than 5 minutes remaining, Prokom fully controlled the game, even after Markota scored 5 consecutive points for Cibona. Prokom's supporters spent the last minute celebrating a first Euroleague victory of the season and the fact that their team still has its homecourt advantage.
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Andrzej Jaworski, Poland