 Panellinios BC proved why it won a regular season group while holding serve at home to start the Last 16 with a 70-62 victory over visiting Brose Baskets Bamberg in Group K. The Panellinios defense starred by keeping Bamberg scoreless for 8 minutes bridging the second and third quarters. During that time, Georgios Kalaitsis had 7 points in an 16-2 run that broke the game open for Panellinios. Joshua Davis paced the winners with a double-double of 13 points and 11 rebounds. Devin Smith led Panellinios with 14 points, hitting his only 2 three-point tries as his team buried 10 of 19 tries from long range. The hosts ruled the backboards, too, by 38 rebounds to 26 for Bamberg as Djuro Ostojic helped with 9 points and 8 rebounds. Bamberg led but briefly in the first half, but used the game's last 9 points to finish strong and hope for a better day. Brian Roberts led the visitors with 14 points while Casey Jacobsen added 12.
Panellinios showed its cards right away as a pair of offensive rebounds led to Davis canning a triple to start the scoreboard. Manolis Papamakarios copied him at 6-1 before Bamberg got the same shot from Casey Jacobsen. The visitors stayed close on a new three-pointer by Anton Gavel at 10-9 but Devin Smith kept Panellinios in front. Another triple by Jacobsen gave Bamberg its first lead, 13-14, before Smith matched it and on the quarter's last shot, Roderick Blakney fed Britton Johnsen for another shot from downtown as Panellinios led 21-15 after 10 minutes. Brian Roberts shot Bamberg within 21-18 from deep to open the second quarter, but Panellinios answered with the next 6 points. John Goldsberry again hit from downtown for Bamberg, and the next shot by Robers had the guests as close as 28-23, but Panellinios used 5 points in a row by Georgios Kalaitsis to embark on an 11-2 run to finish the half up big, 39-25, the game's first double-digit advantage.
When Ian Vougioukas hit a layup and Davis a triple to open the second half, the Panellinios lead was threatening 20 points at 44-25 and Bamberg had a major problem in terms of scoring. Beckham Wyrick ended an eight-minute scoring drought for the guests, then Tibor Pleiss tried to use the free throw line, but the best they and Jacobsen could do was match Panellinios. Only when Roberts reappeared for 5 points in row in the last minute could Bamberg finish the third quarter as close as 50-37. Smith detonated a triple for Panellinios to start the final quarter, and when Bamberg scored the next 5 points, Davis followed with another to keep the hosts comfortable at 56-42. Smith and Djuro Ostojic added layups at 60-42, but Bamberg - thinking ahead, no doubt - refused to die. Despite being down 70-53 with just over 2 minutes left, the visitors came on strong, with Roberts and Predrag Suput scoring the game's last 9 points, just in case they might come in handy later.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Eurocupbasketball.com
|