Pamesa Valencia kept pace as co-leader at the top of Group D when it swarmed Azovmash Mariupol early on the way to a 95-77 home victory in Spain on Tuesday. Pamesa raised its record to 4-0, but must still share first place in Group D with Khimki of Russia, which won in overtime on the road at Anwil Wloclawek. Pamesa visits Khimki in Week 5 to resolve their first-place tie. Azovmash, meanwhile, dropped to 2-3 and now shares a fourth-place tie with Anwil. Pamesa rolled up huge early leads and held them until Azovmash made a sudden charge in the fourth quarter. With the score showing 78-71 with under 3 minutes left, however, Shammond Williams buried 3 consecutive three-point shots in less than a minute to finish the job for Pamesa. Ruben Douglas was Pamesa's big gun in the first half and finished with 21 points, while Williams ended up with 20 after his late-game barrage. Victor Claver added 13 points for the winners and Dejan Milojevic 12. For Azovmash, Rodney Buford and Kris Lang finished with 15 points, while Tyus Edney added 13 and Tomas Delininkaitis 10.
Pamesa went almost 3 minutes with only one basket and fell behind 4-8 on a fastbreak drive by Liadelis before taking over the scoreboard in an impressive blast. Milojevic started a 10-0 run that Mindaugas Timinskas ended with a triple. Then, after Azovmash hit a couple free throws, Pamesa was off on another 10-0 run that Douglas ended from the arc. Delininkaitis tried changing things with his own triple for Azovmash, but 4 seconds remained in the first quarter, enough for Douglas to slingshot another three-pointer from 9 meters, making it 27-13 after 10 minutes. When Claver came out and nailed a triple to open the second quarter, Pamesa was racing to a new high lead, 34-15. Azovmash strung together three-pointers by Delininkaitis and Robert Archibald while getting within 38-23, but Claver answered from the arc and the baseline, while Stanko Barac downed a jumper for another high lead, 47-26, at halftime. Azovmash came out gunning after the break, and tried to match the hosts basket for basket, but Pamesa still entertained leads as high as 59-36 midway through the third quarter. That started to change as Edney, Yahor Meshcharakou and Buford started filling the basket late in the quarter, but Pamesa still was in command by 67-50 as it ended. Azovmash kept charging with Buford and Delininkaitus landing triples early in the final quarter. Still, no danger lurked for Pamesa until less than 6 minutes remained, when Azovmash rattled off a quick 3-11 run as Edney kept feeding inside to Meshcharakou, Lang and Buford, who slammed back a rebound to make it 78-71 with under 3 minutes left. Williams owned the rest of that time, however, as came out of a late timeout and rained 3 consecutive triples to make it 89-74 and end all doubt in the matter.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Frank Lawlor, Valencia