Euroleague: Unicaja takes thriller from Siena

On a day of Euroleague blow out games, those that waited for the last contest on the schedule were treated with a barnburner in Spain when Unicaja Malaga erased an 14-point in the fourth quarter and denied Montepaschi Siena their first win of the 2012-13 Euroleague season in an overtime thriller. In other Friday games, Mapooro Cantu picked up it’s first win of the season against BC Khimki Moscow Region, Panathinaikos Athens improved it’s record to 2-1 with a road win over Union Olimpija Ljubljana, and Anadolu Efes Istanbul handled Cedevita Zagreb.

Group B
Unicaja Malaga – Montepaschi Siena 91:89
Montepaschi Siena traveled to the Martin Carpena Arean in hopes of securing their first win of the Euroleague 2012-13 season. They had most everyone watching believing that they were about to accomplish that goal, until the guys seated across the scorer’s table from them got a healthy pep talk from coach Jasmin Pepesa and turned up their game a few notches and used a 14-0 run late in the fourth quarter to send the game into overtime. The win puts Unicaja’s record at 2-1 and in second place in Group C, while Montepaschi becomes the only squad in the group without a win.

The two squads played fairly evenly throughout the first half, exchanging leads, going on mini-runs to build minor advantages, but never anything major and never for very long. By the end of the first quarter Unicaja had a four-point margin and at the end of the first half Montepaschi held a one-point advantage.

The game took a dramatic turn in the third quarter with Siena taking control of the contest on both ends of the floor. They dropped in timely threes, went all out for loose balls and rebounds and caused Unicaja’s offense problems by keeping them off balance. Back-to-back triples mid-way through the quarter put the vistors up by 10 and they while they extended the margin to 13 at one point, they closed out the frame up by 11 heading into the final quarter.

On the heels of a poor quarter of play and a final trip down the floor to end the third quarter that resulted in multiple missed shots, Unicaja coach Jasmin Pepesa let his squad know how he felt about things with an animated and heated ‘discussion’ between quarters, which seemed to light a fire under his squad. Siena got their advantage up to 14 with consecutive jumpers, but a triple by James Gist started a 14:0 run by the hosts and he completed the trip back with a reverse dunk to knot the score at 73 with just over two minutes to play. The squads exchanged baskets for a minute and a half and with the score tied at 78, Fran Vasquez powered in a dunk off a bullet pass delivered by Williams at the top of the key to give the hosts a two-point advantage with 24 seconds to play. Bobby Brown held the ball for a final shot and connected on a floater down the middle to send the contest into an extra five tied at 80.

Marcus Williams got scoring started in the extra frame draining a triple, but a few trips down the court later, Brown knotted the score at 84 with three minutes left. David Moss put Siena back on top with a three-ball, but a pair of singles off a foul and a Calloway triple gave Unicaja the lead back at 89:87 with just 38 clicks on the clock remaining. Marcelus Kemp nailed a turnaround jumper for the visitors to bring them even. Calloway found an opening to the hoop and dropped in the go-ahead basket with 17 seconds left, putting the hosts up 91:89. Gist continued with his outstanding performance in the final seconds, securing the victory by blocking Kemp’s final shot as time expired.

Unicaja got 15 points from Williams and Calloway, 13 from Gist and 11 from Kunoslav Simon.

Siena picked up 22 points from Brown, 16 from Kemp and 15 from Moss, and 11 from Tomas Ress in the loss.

Group A
Mapooro Cantu – BC Khimki Moscow Region 67:54
Cantu came back from a seven point deficit in the first quarter to not allow Khimki to score more than 11 a quarter for the last three quarters, to earn their first Euroleague victory.

Khimki used a seven point run in the first quarter to get out to a 14:21 advantage after the first quarter. Cantu got on track, tightened up their defense and took control of the contest with a 13:0 run of their own to go ahead late in the second quarter. At the end of the half, the hosts held a 35:32 lead. In the third the visitors found that their hoops must have been covered up as they couldn’t get anything to fall through and Cantu pulled away to build a 55:43 advantage after three quarters. Cantu changed it’s strategy during the final 10 and attempted to slow things down, taking their time looking for good shots, while Khimki found they needed to get things moving to try to fight back, resulting in forced shots and poor decisions on offense. Cantu basically cruised to a solid home win, their first, and a 1-2 record, while Khimki’s loss also gave them a 1-2 record.

Cantu was led by Pietro Aradori’s 13 points and eight rebounds, and Jerry Smith’s 10 points.

Khimki got 10 points each from Vitaly Fridzon and Zoran Planinic in the loss.

Union Olimpija Ljubljana – Panathinaikos Athens 67:85
Panathinaikos earned themselves a share of the early season lead in the Group A with a convincing road victory over Olimpija. The visitors extended their lead each of the first three quarters and then cruised in the final frame to move into a three-way tie for the Group A top spot with Real Madrid and Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul at 2-1.

Olimpija picked up the first points of the game, which would prove to be the last time they’d see the lead in the contest. After their initial basket, Panathinaikos scored seven unanswered points to set up a 19:23 first quarter advantage. Panathinaikos found that they could bring in a few subs in the second quarter to get some playing time and still managed to extend their margin to 12 at the end of the half, 38:50. With the game comfortably in hand, the Greeks cruised in the second half, extending their advantage to 18 by the end of the contest,67:85.

Jonas Maciulis led the way for Panathinaikos with 18 points, Roko Ukic added 14, Stephane Lasme contributed 13 and Charis Giannoloulos dropped in 12.

Aron Baynes paced Olimpija with 16 points, Klemen Prepelic added 11 and Dominic Waters tallied 10.

Group C
Anadolu Efes Istanbul – Cedevita Zagreb 85:66
Anadolu Efes picked up their second win of the Euroleague 2012-13 season with a victory at their home areaa over winless Cedevita Zagreb. The win puts Efes in second place tied with EA7 Armani at 2-1, one game behind Group leader Zalgiris Kaunas, who’s currently 3-0. The lost keeps Cedevita in last place with an 0-3 record.

Efes got out to a quick start in this contest, outscoring their visitors 23:14 in the first quarter and holding a 44:28 advantage at the half. The third quarter saw Cedevita play more closely to the Turkish squad, but still lost ground, losing the quarter 23:19. With the game in hand Efes loosened up a bit, while still coming out on top, 85:66.

Anadolu Efes was lead by Sasha Vujacic’s 18 points, Jamon-Alfred Lucas’ 16 points and Jordan Farmar’s 14 points.

Cedevita Zagreb got 14 points each from Marques Green and Bracey Wright.

Photos courtesy Euroleague.