EuroCup: Bryant’s 30 leads Ulm to big QF win

The EuroCup quarterfinals tipped off on Tuesday with a single contest, followed by three on Wednesday. The eight clubs will play two games, one home, one away, with the cumulative results determining which four with advance to the semifinals. In the first match, Ratiopharm Ulm got a huge performance from John Bryant (30 points, 7 rebounds, 30 PIR) and outlasted Uxue Bilbao Basket to take the early, but slim, lead with a four-point margin. On Wednesday Spartak got 18 points and 7 assists from Zach Wright in an 11-point win at home against Budivelnik Kiev; Lokomotiv Kuban took a huge lead into the second game with an 18-point road win over KK Buducnost VOLI with Derrick Brown accounting for 17 points, 8 rebounds, 3 blocked shots and 2 steals; and Valencia Basket got an impressive performance from Justin Doellman off the bench (18 points 8 rebounds, and 5 steals) to put up 10 on Unics Kazan at home.

Tuesday, March 5
Ratiopharm Ulm – Uxue Bilbao Basket, 85:81
Ratiopharm Ulm rode on the shoulders of big man John Bryant and came out with the first win of the 2012-13 EuroCup quarterfinals. Bryant tallied 30 points, hauled in 7 rebounds, and come out of the contest with a PIR of 30, which was high for the first day of the quarterfinals competition.

Bilbao came out strong in the first frame, building a 12-point advantage while scoring an impressive 30 in the first frame. Ulm wasn’t able to match the 30-spot in the second, but put up 25, while holding their guests to half as many points as they scored in the first and erased all but three points from their deficit. The two clubs retired to the dressing rooms at the half with Bilbao up 42:45.

Ulm picked up the lead in the third after cutting Bilbao’s production even further, this time only allowing 13 points, while added 18 of their own. Heading into the final frame the hosts led by two, 60:58.

To open the fourth frame, Ulm went on an 11:2 run to get up 71:60. After a couple of exchanges that brought the score to 76:64, Bilbao got seven unanswered to cut the margin to five, 76:71. Ulm countered with a seven-point run of their own to push the lead back to 12, 83:71. Not giving up, Bilbao fought back and had a run of 2:9 to get back to within five, 85:80. They couldn’t bridge that gap though and could only muster another single to close the difference to four, which is ever-important in a two-game series…

Bryant’s 30 was tops on the day for Ulm, to which he also added 7 rebounds. Allan Ray dropped in 13, and the duo of Per Guenther (7 assists) and Keaton Nankivil (8 rebounds) contributed 10 points each.

Kostas Vasiliadis was high man for Bilbao with 21 points. The trio of Lamont Hamilton (6 rebounds, 4 steals), Alex Mumbru (4 rebounds, 5 assists) and Axel Hervelle (6 rebounds) all netted 13 points.

Wed., March 6
Spartak St. Petersburg – Budivelnik Kiev, 83:72
Spartak St. Petersburg will take an 11-point lead into game two of their home/away series with Budivelnik Kiev after coming out of game one with an 83:72 victory at home. They’ll square off in the final match of their quarterfinal series on Wed., March 13, in Kiev.

Spartak got an early 6:0 run and kept the margin through the first 10 to head into the second quarter up 23:19. A late 8:2 run gave the hosts a 38:31 lead, but Budivelnik closed the margin to five in the closing seconds only to allow Joshua Carter to drain a buzzer-beating deuce restoring the seven-point lead, 43:36 at the half.

The home club knocked down consecutive jumpers (Loukas Mavrokefalides and Janis Strelnieks) to extend the lead to 11. Budivelnik went on a 4:13 run to slice the margin to two, 51:49. Shortly after the guests took the lead on a Leo Lyons triple, putting them up 43:54. At the end of the third frame Spartak got an offense rebound (one of his 11 boards on the night) and basket from Nikita Kurbanov to head into the finale 10 up 63:60.

A Kurbanov triple set the tone early in the forth as the hosts started to build a lead. With just over four minutes left they were up 10, 75:65. Budivelnik cut the lead a bit to 77:70, but two triples pushed the lead to 13 before a Lyons buzzer-beater cut it to 11, 83:72 as the series now moves to Kiev.

Wrights’ 18 points and 7 assists led the Spartak effort on the night. Mavrokefalides added 17 points and 5 rebounds, Carter dropped in 15 and grabbed 5 rebounds. Strelnieks contributed 12 points, 4 rebounds 7 assists and 2 steals, and Vladimir Dragicevic added 10 points and 4 rebounds.

Lyons was game-high with 21 points for Budivelnik. He also added 7 rebounds and 3 assists. Artur Drozdov scored 16, Michailis Anisimov added 12, Malcolm Delaney contributed 11 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists.

Buducnost VOLI – Lokomotiv Kuban, 54:72
Lokomotiv Kuban got a huge road win on Wednesday and will be taking an 18-point advantage into game two of their EuroCup quarterfinal series with Buducnost VOLI. The Russian club traveled to Montenegro and left with a 54:72 victory.

Things didn’t look good for Kuban as the contest tipped off with the hosts running up a 15:8 first quarter score. The clubs found the defense tough to penetrate early on and VOLI got six unanswered late in the quarter from Dusko Bunic. Lokomotiv got things moving early in the second and ended up bridging the gap to head into the break only down three, 28:25.

The third quarter was when the guests turned the game around. It took Buducnost over seven minutes to sink a field goal, while Kuban ran off 10 unanswered and found that they had dialed in their shooting, outscoring their hosts 8:26 in the third to go up by 15, 36:51, heading in the final frame. Things didn’t get any easier for Buducnost in the fourth and Kuban extended their lead to a high of 21 before settling for and 18-point margin. The series will move to Krasnodar, Russia on Wed., March 13.

Brown’s 17 points, 8 rebounds, 3 blocked shots and 2 steals led the way for Kuban. Nick Calathes added 15 points, 3 rebounds, and 4 assists. Andrey Zubkov (4 rebounds) and Mantas Kalnietis (7 assists) contributed 10 points each, and Richard Hendrix added 9 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 blocked shots.

Cedomir Vitkovac was high man for Buducnost with 14 points, and 7 rebounds. Bunic got 9 points and 7 rebounds.

Valencia Basket – Unics Kazan, 80:70
Valencia will take a 10-spot into their next match-up with Unics Kazan next Wed., March 13, in Kazan, Russia, after an 80:70 victory on Wednesday.

Unics got up 13:17, but was then hit with an 8:0 run by the hosts to close out the first quarter 21:20. The game took a different tone in the second as the home club went on a 10:2 run behind Doellman and mate Stefan Markovic. Bojan Dubljevic got eight of his team-high 19 late in the second quarter to assist in building a 10-point margin for the hosts as the clock ran out on the first half with them up 45:35.

Unics’ Terrell Lyday got red-hot in the third, netting multiple triples on his way to a game-high 28 points and PIR of 28 (second only to Bryant on the day). The guests were able to chip off four from the deficit to head into the final frame down six, 64:58.

Doellman connected for four early as well as hitting a slashing Pau Ribas for a nifty backdoor layup to get their double-digit lead back, 70:60. The clubs exchanged points for the rest of the quarter, with Doellman slamming the door on the contest with a dunk in the closing seconds.

Dubljevic’s 19 was key to the win as he tallied them in only 18 minutes of PT. Doellman added 18 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 steals. Markovic contributed 10 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals.

Lyday was game-high with 28 points, adding 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal to his 28 PIR day. Mire Chatman contributed 13 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals, and 1 assist. Chuck Eidson added 11 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1 steal.