Qualifying Round C, Game 2 report: Hapoel Migdal 76-73 Unics Kazan
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 Unics Kazan punched its ticket to the Eurocup regular season while eliminating former ULEB Cup champion Hapoel Migdal on Tuesday in Jerusalem, Israel. Jerusalem recorded a 76-73 victory, but it wasn't enough to overcome Kazan, which won the first leg in Russia 88-66 last week. Terrell Lyday led the visitors with 17 points, while Vladimir Veremeenko shined with 11 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists for Unics, which will play in Group C of the Eurocup regular season with fellow Russian side Dynamo Moscow, Barons/LMT Riga of Latvia and Lukoil Akademik of Bulgaria. Hapoel, which won the ULEB Cup in 2004, but has no players remaining from that squad, threatened Kazan with a 10-point lead late in the second period, but a pair of key baskets from Lyday helped Kazan cut the gap to 41-35 at halftime. Igor Zamanskiy led a Unics comeback in the third quarter as the visitors surged ahead by 6. Hapoel continued to fight to at the very least win in front of its fans and used a strong fourth quarter from Timmy Bowers to bow out of the competition with a win. Kresimir Loncar finished with 14 points and Marko Popovic added 10 for the winners. Bowers led Hapoel with 16 points, while Yuval Naimy added 12, Travis Watson posted 12 points and 11 rebounds and Omar Sneed scored 10.
The game got off to a slow start before a Veremeenko basket got Unics going. Sneed gave the hosts their first points with a three-pointer. Watson made some noise in the paint as Hapoel went ahead by 5, but Veremeenko kept Kazan close. However layups by Bowers and Naimy gave Hapoel a 25-18 lead after 10 minutes. Sharon Shason opened the second period with a triple that ignited the crowd and gave the hosts a double-digit advantage. But Unics responded with the next 6 points and soon a Loncar basket in the paint brought Kazan within 30-28 midway through the period. Jerusalem came right back as Naimy scored the next 5 points and Moran Roth added 2 from the line. After Loncar and Erez Marckovich traded baskets, Sneed made it 40-33 from the line. Lyday stepped up with a clutch three and another jumper to keep Kazan at a safe distance at halftime, 41-35.
Kazan came out for the second half fired up and quickly wiped away any progress Hapoel made in the first half. After Rahshon Clark scored for Hapoel, Lyday and Popovic hit back-to-back three-pointers and Zamanskiy tied the score at 43-43. Sneed answered for Hapoel, but Zamanskiy drilled a triple to give Unics its first lead since the opening minutes. He soon added another three to put Kazan up 47-51. The momentum was clearly with the visitors, who were more energized than ever and it showed on the glass. Dmitry Sokolov stretched the lead to 50-56 before Naimy and Shason showed signs of life to make it 54-56 heading into the last period. Bowers tied it with a long jumper and put Hapoel on top with a nifty move in the paint, but a Sokolov slam showed that Kazan wasn't done. Naimy hit a three in transition to give the hosts hope at 64-58, though time was running out. And after a Unics timeout, baskets by Lyday and Loncar took the wind out of Jerusalem's sails. In the final minutes, the outcome of the tie was decided, but the two teams still battled for the win and Bowers capped a big fourth quarter with a jumper that lifter Hapoel to a pyrrhic victory.
QUOTES
Hapoel Migdal head coach Guy Goodes
"It's not a miss. You need to understand that we played against a team that is bigger than us with bigger players. We had injuries, which made things difficult for us. I want to thank my players for fighting. We were tired. You could see how tired Timmy was. It was important to win. We won, but we didn’t advance. Now we’ll go to the Challenge Cup and do our best."
Hapoel Migdal guard Moran Roth
"We brought energy from the start. We wanted to take an early lead and we were up 11 already in the first half, but in the end they closed to 6 by halftime. But it was a good win and I think that it will give us a lot of motivation for the future. Everyone did their best and was aggressive from the beginning. For the most part, we did what the coach asked of us."
Unics Kazan head coach Aco Petrovic
"We did most of the work at home and we're in better shape now. I'm glad we had a good game in a gym that’s hard to play in. It’s good preparation for the future. Last year Hapoel had a better team than it does now."
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Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Eurocupbasketball.com
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