Thanks to an overwhelming third quarter in which it blasted the rival with a 3-21 partial, DKV Joventut secured Group A's top spot on Tuesday night thanks to a road win at Siauliai by 51-89. This new win made Turk Telekom's effort to grab the top spot useless. The Spanish team then finishes with a 9-1 record while Siauliai drops to 4-6 and says goodbye to the ULEB Cup as KK Bosna managed to beat Alba Berlin at home by 15 points in another Group A game, giving the Bosnian team an advantage of just 2 points in the direct tiebreaker against Siauliai. Demond Mallet led the winners with his 22 points including 4 of 9 triples, Jan-Hendrick Jagla added 20 points and 13 rebounds, Edu Hernandez-Sonseca tallied 12 and Rudy Fernandez contributed 10 for Joventut, who was forced to play without Petar Popovic, who due to passport problems was forced to fly back to Spain. For Siauliai, only Antonio Grant reached double digits in scoring, 13.
The game was off to a fast start as Siauliai soon was leading by 9-7. Marius Prekevicius took control of the hosts' offense with 6 early points, but Rudy Fernandez and Lubos Barton maintained Joventut close enough. In fact, five straight points by Jan Jagla allowed DKV Joventut to jump ahead for the first time with a 14-16 lead, but Antonio Grant's bucket put an end to the first quarter with a 17-16 Siauliai lead. Donatas Zavackas blasted a three but he was replied in the same way by Jagla and Demond Mallet as the guests jumped to a 24-30 lead. Aurimas Kieza capped a 6-0 Siauliai run again to tie the game at 30-30, but more threes by Mallet and two straight baskets by Rudy fueled a 4-14 run for Joventut, 34-44 at the halftime break. The third period started with a 0-19 burst for Penya for 34-63 as the guests' big men Edu Hernandez-Sonseca and Jagla did a good work in the paint. Grant broke the spell with two free throws, but only another free throw by Jose Olivero would be all Siauliai would do in the third period, which closed with a decisive 37-65. In the final period things were balanced again, but it was already too late for Siauliai as Joventut even managed to increase its lead a little more, which meant going around the 30-point advabtage.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
ULEBCup.com
|