 The Russian winter did not stop Benetton Gioco Digitale from earning a hard-fought 74-86 victory on Dynamo Moscow's home court. With the triumph, Benetton improves to 2-1 in Group F while Dynamo stays winless and must have a perfect run the rest of the way to hope of moving on to the Last 16. C.J. Wallace led the way for Benetton with 21 points to go with 6 rebounds. Gary Neal seconded the big man with 19 points and 8 rebounds. Davor Kus added 10 points and 6 assists while Daniel Hackett scored 14. Point guard Sergey Bykov paced Dynamo with a game-high 22 points while forward Sergey Monya added 20 more to go with 7 rebounds. Alexey Shved, in his first Eurocup game with his new team, scored 16 points, and Aleksey Savrasenko chipped in with 12 more. Benetton was already up by 12 at the end of the first quarter, but Dynamo did not give up and managed to scrap back to within 2 points near the end of the third. Benetton, however, kept its cool in the final quarter and held on down the stretch.
Savrasenko scored inside off a pass from Bykov to start the game. Alessandro Gentile and Wallace answered with 4 straight points before Bykov stepped outside and hit a three. Donatas Motiejunas scored inside, and Bykov bookended a score by Wallace with a pair of layups . Monya and Kus traded three-point bombs. Monya maneuvered in close for a layup, but Neal put the visitors up by double digits at 12-22 with a three-pointer and a pair of foul shots. Hackett then extended the lead to 13 with a triple before Monya could connect from downtown to keep his team close. The two opponents traded trips to the foul line, and Benetton was ahead 17-29 at the end of 10 minutes. Shved hit a pair of free throws to open the second period. Sandro Nicevic responded with a two-pointer, but Monya went deep twice in a row to pull Dynamo to with 25-31. A Benetton timeout did not help as Shved scored a 2-plus-1 and followed with a layup to bring Dynamo to within 1 point before Neal finally hit a three for Benetton. Hackett and Wallace added a pair of layups, and Hackett hit a layup-plus-free throw to cap a 0-10 burst and push the lead back to 11 for Benetton. Kus scored a layup and Motiejunas added a field goal before Savrasenko hit inside and Shved nailed a three-pointer to end the half 39-49.
Bykov and Savrasenko opened the second half with a back-to-back layups before Wallace scored inside. Bykov then rolled off 5 straight points on a three-pointer and a jumper. Neal sparked a 0-8 run, which included 4 points from Wallace, on a layup to put Benetton up 48-59. Savrasenko once again scored down low, but Gentile answered with a bucket of his own. Savrasenko then hit a layup that sparked a 9-0 run for the home side to pull them to within 59-61. Wallace made a pair of free throws to give Benetton some breathing room and end the third 59-63. Hackett got a three-pointer to fall to begin the final stanza. Benetton was up by 7 moments later when Wallace also connected from deep. Bykov scored from behind the arc to not let Benetton get away. The visitors were forced to call for time after Shved dunked to pull Dynamo to within 5 points. Bykov went 1-of-2 from the foul line, but Kus made a triple and Neal collected a 2-plus-1 to push the Benetton lead to 69-77. Monya got Dynamo to within 7 points on a pair of foul shots, but Hackett put the nail in the coffin with a huge three-pointer, 72-82, with under two minutes to play. Bykov made layup, but Benetton was the only team celebrating.
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Eurocupbasketball.com
|