Strasbourg uses late heroics to beat Bonn


Strasbourg made a fashionable start to its Eurocup season with an 83-86 road win over Telekom Baskets Bonn. Eugene Lawrence gave an 83-80 margin to Bonn with 10 seconds left, but missed a second free throw. Paul Lacombe pulled down the rebound and raced down the court to assist Tadjia Dragicevic, who tied the game at 83-83. Then Antoine Diot beat the buzzer from downtown to give his side an incredible win. Louis Campbell led the winners with 18 points, 5 assists and a perfect 5-of-5 shooting from long distance. Jeremy Leloup added 16 points, Diot 15 and Dragicevic 12. Steve Wachalski of Bonn led all the winners with 24 points from 6-of-8 shooting from downtown, Benas Veikalas scored 17, while Lawrence and Ryan Brooks chipped in 10 each.

Campbell from beyond the arc capped a 2-12 run for Strasbourg to open the game. Bonn answered with a 9-2 charge capped with a jumper by Wachalski to get within 11-14. Lacombe fueled the visitors to by going to the rim to make it 16-21 at the end of the first quarter. Wachalski again gave a 35-28 margin to the home team through midway of the quarter. Campbell answered to make it 38-40 for the visitors, then scoring again with three seconds left in the half to lead 42-45. Leloup tied the game at 50-50, then Bonn seemed to be able to escape by scoring 10 unanswered points, with Brooks giving his side the first double digit margin, 60-50. Strasbourg didn’t give up and Matt Howard from the foul one fixed the score at 64-58 after three quarters. Bonn never looked back in the final quarter, first raising the cushion to 78-71 through Angelo Caloiaro with three minutes left, then keeping a slim margin till the incredible finale.