 Gescrap Bilbao Basket ended the first leg of the Regular Season on a high note on Wednesday night thanks to a 64-85 road win at Lukoil Academic Sofia. The win leaves Gescrap undefeated with a 3-0 record for sole possession of Group B leadership, while Lukoil drops to 1-2. A solid defense in the third and fourth periods allowed the guests to keep building a strong lead that was unsurmountable for Lukoil in the end, despite its good start to the game. Lamont Hamilton led the winners with his 19 points, Kostas Vasileiadis added 15, Alex Mumbru had 13 points and 8 assists and FRan Pilepic posted 10. For Lukoil, Devin Green had 13 points plus 11 rebounds, Mohamed Abukar added 11 and Darryl Watkins contributed 10.
Two straight threes by Alex Mumbru and Axel Hervelle put Gescrap Bilbao Basket soon up by 0-6. However, Lukoil Academic Sofia
didn't panic and, little by little, regrouped until two free throws by Devin Green managed to tie the game at 10-10 in minute
5 and then make it 11-10 for the hosts. A slam also by Green even made it 15-10 to complete a 10-0 run for Lukoil. Mumbru and
Hervelle were the most active players for the guests, and between them, Bilbao was back to the fight for 19-21 after Mumbru's
layup. Mohamed Abukar, the other offensive force in Lukoil during the first quarter, was the one to put the final touch to
the score after 10 minutes, 25-23 for the hosts. Tencho Banev's three-point play helped neutralize the first bucket by Mumbru
in the second quarter. Neither team managed to have a solid margin during the rest of the second period, and there were
several lead changes. With both teams tied in turnovers (6-6) and assists (10-10) after 20 minutes, it would come to the
better performance from the arc by Bilbao to give them the slim edge at the break, 42-43, as Lamont Hamilton was up to 13
points already.
The third period saw Gescrap start with a 0-7 including a three by Kostas Vasileiadis that made it 42-50. Hamilton soon joined the party to slam the ball and Green stopped the bleeding from the arc with a three for the 45-52. However, Bilbao tightened its defense on the hosts and soon was increasing the gap with Mumbru, Hervelle and Vasileiadis still adding points and Milovan Rakovic slamming for the 47-57. Lukoil was simply stopped as Nikos Zisis hit a layup for the 51-64 after 30 minutes. The last period also started with a 1-5 Bilbao run capped by Roger Grimau's free throw for 52-69. Banev was trying to keep Lukoil in the game, but Zisis and Hamilton blasted straight threes for the guests for a 57-75 with five minutes to go. Fran Pilepic kept the fire alive for Bilbao while Abukar and Green desperately tried to maintain Lukoil's hopes. However, the clock was ticking away and when Vasileiadis blasted a new three for 61-81 150 seconds to go, the guests started celebrating the third win of the season.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Eurocupbasketball.com
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