 A thriller with the wrong ending from the home crowd's point of view saw Hemofarm rally from 17 points down in the final quarter to stun Besiktas Cola Turka 91-94 in the much-heralded debut by Allen Iverson for the hosts. Five consecutive three-pointers in the last 2 minutes by Hemofarm finished a comeback from what had been a 82-65 deficit for the visitors with 7 minutes left. Hemofarm made 7 of its 10 three-pointers for the night after that and came away with a good-as-gold road win in Group B. Milan Macvan led the winners with a huge double-double of 17 points, 15 rebounds. Miljan Pavkovic, author of the go-ahead triple with 45 seconds left, had 16 points, Mustafa Abdul Hamid 15, Milos Borisov 14 and Bojan Krstovic 10. For Besiktas, big man Andrew Ogilvy had his own double-double of 20 points and 12 rebounds, while Iverson and Serhat Cetin added 15 each and Mire Chatman 13.
Jerome Jordan put back an offensive rebound and the added free throw for Hemofarm to open the scoring. Chatman and Iverson each assisted Cetin on fastbreak layups at 5-3. Chatman hit a coast-to-coast fastbreak layup plus free throw, drew a second foul on Jordan and added another shot at the line to make it 9-3. Macvan's fall-away jumper and high bank shot revived Hemofarm to get within 9-7 before Fedor Likholitov put back an Iverson miss and Ogilvy another to keep the hosts up 13-7. Cetin added 5 more points and Ogilvy 4 as Besiktas held a 24-14 lead after one quarter. The veteran Krstovic got loose for a pair of open layups to start the second quarter. Jordan slammed to keep cutting the difference to 26-23. Iverson, who had passed or missed until then, now drove for a three-point play and assisted Cevher Ozer to make it 33-23. By the time Cuneyt Erden and Ozer buried a pair of triples, the lead had soared to 39-25. Hemofarm kept working until Krstovic hit a reverse and assisted Boris Savovic's dunk to lower the difference to single digits, where it stayed at 44-35 thanks to Cetin's heady layup to finish the first half.
 Quick baskets by Milivoje Bozovic and Borisov trimmed the difference again right after halftime, but Cetin, Chatman and Ogilvy steadied Besiktas at 49-41. Abdul Hamid drove for one basket, drilled a triple and fed Macvan for a layup in response, forcing a Besiktas timeout. A tip-in by Ozher steadied the hosts again, and then Ogilvy found Iverson in the corner for his first triple to make it 56-50. Iverson soon added another three-pointer on the break at 59-54, but Heomfarm kept coming. Krstovic's layup finally tied it 60-60, while Macvan's free throw put the visitors ahead. Ogilvy responded with free throws and a layup with Michal Ignerski tipping in a rebound to put Besiktas back up before Erden's triple from way downtown ended the third quarter with the hosts ahead 69-63. Ogilvy's three-point play ignited a 10-0 run to open the final quarter, with Chatman's triple making it 79-63. When Erden added his own shot from deep, the hosts had their high lead, 82-65. Hemofarm would not back down, however, and responded with its own quick and complete 3-16 blast anchored by Abdul Hamid to make it 85-81 with 2:30 left to play. Ogilvy then tipped in an Iverson miss, but a fumbled defensive rebound by him gave Pavkovic an open three-pointer to pull Hemofarm within 87-84. Iverson gave the crowd what it came for next, a four-point play on a triple plus free throw at 91-84, but Borisov answered from downtown, too. When an Iverson turnover led to a triple by Macvan, the score was 91-90 entering the final minute. With 45 seconds left, Pavkovic lifted his team's fifth consecutive three-point try, and hit nothing but the net for a 91-93 lead. Chatman missed from downtown next and Pavkovic went to the foul line with 19 seconds left to make 1 of 2 free throws. He got his own rebound on the second, but Chatman stole it, giving Besiktas a chance. Game-tying three-point tries by Iverson and Cetin missed, however, and so Hemofarm had a great comeback victory that left the Besiktas crowd stunned at the end of Iverson's debut.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Eurocupbasketball.com
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