With a week left in the regular season, SLUC Nancy forged a three-way tie in Group G by coming from behind to eliminate visiting PGE Turow with a 102-82 decision on Tuesday. Nancy is now 3-2, the same record as both Panellinios, its final-week opponent, and Gran Canaria. Turow fell to 1-4 and will now finish last in the group. After trailing by 40-46 at the break and leading by just 70-68 at the end of three quarters, Nancy busted out for a 32-14 fourth quarter to roll away to victory. The brothers Greer were again the catalysts for Nancy. Ricardo Greer finished with 22 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists, all team-highs. Jeff Greer followed with 20 points, 7 rebounds, 4 steals and 4 assists. John Cox added 16 points, Stephen Brun 15 and Steed Tchicamboud 11 for the winners. Turow was led again by Michael Wright with 22 points, while TJ Thompson scored 15, Justin Gray 14, Bradnon Wallace 11 and Robert Witka 10.
Jeff Greer's three-pointer got Nancy going on its way to early leads before Witka rallied the visitors with a big triple to tie 9-9. Although Tchicamboud responded from the arc to keep Nancy in front, Turow responded with the game's next 9 points, split between Wright and Thompson, to turn the tables on Nancy at 14-20. Tchicamboud answered for Nancy but Konrad Wysocki had the first quarter's last word to give Turow an 18-22 advantage. The visitors weren't content with guarding their lead and instead blasted off behind Wright, Adam Wojcik and back-to-back triples from Gray to a 21-32 advantage. Nancy recognized the urgency of the situation, so followed Stephen Brun and John Cox on another game-changing run of 13-0 to take a 34-32 lead. The rhythm was set now, so Thompson fired up the guests with 2 triples in a row during a 2-9 run to put his Turow back in front, 36-41. Nancy answered now, getting within 40-41 on Slaughter's free throws, but Thompson and Gray, with his third triple of the quarter, kept Turow in charge, 40-46, at the break.
Almost 3 tense and scoreless minutes passed to start the second half before Wright expanded Turow's lead to 43-50 with a pair of layups. Jeff Greer's triple and his brother Ricardo's layup kept Nancy as close as 48-52. When Witka dialled up another three-pointer, however, Turow threatened to take off at 48-57, but Jeff Greer matched him, sparking a Nancy rally. The points poured in over the next few minutes until Cox, Jeff Greer and Brun finished the third quarter with a triple each to give Nancy a 70-68 lead headed into the final quarter. Even when Wright got Turow within 71-70 with another basket, the Nancy resurgence continued with the Greer brothers, Cox and Brun, the latter with a triple to finish a 12-0 run to an 83-70 lead. Gray hit from downtown for Turow, but Jeff Greer copied him and Nancy still held a double-digit advantage, 88-77, going into the last 5 minutes. The hosts were beyond confident of the victory now and were thinking of possible tie-break points, and so motored to the finish by doubling their advantage, making sure there will be another week of drama in Group G.
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
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