 Brose Baskets Bamberg walked away from the home court of BK Ventspils with a valuable 62-85 victory to open the 2009-10 Eurocup regular season with a huge road win. Predrag Suput was the go-to guy all evening for Bamberg, leading the way with a game-high 18 points while hitting critical baskets anytime that Ventspils made an effort to challenge. Tibor Pleiss seconded Suput with 12, and Anton Gavel added 11. Janis Strelnieks led Ventspils with 16 points while Aaron Pettway notched 12 in the losing effort. After Ventspils got to within 5 points late in the second quarter, Suput hit a three to spark the Bamberg rout. Up by 12 points at half, the visitors put the game away outscoring Ventspils 12-27 in the third quarter.
Casey Jacobsen drew first blood for Bamberg and Gavel added 2 fouls shots before Strelnieks hit a three for the home side. Karsten Tadda punched back with a triple, but Mareks Jurevicus matched him from long range. Ventspils went on a 6-1 spurt till Karsten hit again from beyond the three-point arc, 12-13. Pettway maneuvered inside for a 2-plus-1 to retake the lead for Ventspils, but Suput scored 6 points in a 0-11 run by Bamberg to put his team ahead by 8 points. Robert Garrett scored a field goal to push the Bamberg advantage to 20-28 after 10 minutes. Ventspils opened the second period with a 6-0 run as it turned up the defense and held Bamberg scoreless till Elton Brown finally got a layup to fall. Suput followed with a bucket inside, and Garrett drained a three to give the visitors a double-digit margin at 26-36. Ventspils clawed its way back to get to within 5 points as it went 7-of-8 as a team from the foul line only to see Suput and Brian Roberts hit back-to-back threes to send Bamberg into the locker room up 33-45.
Suput opened the second half with three-pointer. Moments later Jacobsen connected from beyond the three-point arc, but Pettway countered with a layup plus the additional foul shot. Suput, fully in the zone, scored again, and Roberts added a layup to push the lead out to 17. Strelnieks managed to cut in for a layup, but a field goal by Tibor Pleiss put Bamberg up 42-61. Scott tried to get Ventspils to respond by working in for 2 points, but the visitors kept pulling away and broke the 20-point barrier on a field goal by Roberts. Gavel added a triple, Tadda followed with a two-pointer, and Beckham Wyrick drilled a three to put the game definitely out of reach. Bamberg went into the final period up 45-75. After a slow start to the fourth for both teams, Lauris Blaus scored six points in an 8-2 burst by Ventspils. Bamberg called for time, and Brown responded with a layup. Strelnieks made a three, but Brown hit again from inside. Arturs Berzins cut the difference with a pair of layups as Ventspils managed to get the final score down to 62-85.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Eurocupbasketball.com
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