2006-07Regular SeasonRound 10
January 16, 2007 CET: 18:00
Local time: 18:00 PALAESTRA

Montepaschi ended Telindus Oostende's hopes of a spot in the elimination rounds with a 73-62 win in the Group C finale on Tuesday in Siena, Italy. Montepaschi, which had already clinched first place in the group, improved to 8-2, Oostende, which needed to win to advance to the next stage, dropped to 4-6 and finished the regular season in last place. Elvir Ovcina helped the visitors out to a big, early lead, but Motepaschi fought back to take a 38-36 halftime advantage. The Siena held Oostende to a mere 9 third-quarter points as its lead grew to double figures and Rimantas Kaukenas came up strong down the stretch to secure the victory. Kaukenas, Lonny Baxter and Terrell McIntyre led Montepaschi with 16 apiece and Joseph Forte added 10. Baxter also had 9 rebounds and 4 steals. Rashard Wright had 13 for Oostende, Ovcina and Eric Hicks 12 each and Lavar Postell 11 points and 5 assists. Ovcina and Hicks also cleaned the glass, finishing with 12 and 10, respectively.

Ostende raced out to a fast start with Ovcina on fire, scoring 7 straight points from the perimeter and under the basket. Siena tried to stay in the game with Kaukenas's three-pointers making it 6-11. Oostende coach Sharon Drucker used a 2-3 zone defense to cover the arc, but Forte answered with an other triple to reduce the hosts' deficit to 9-13. Ovcina was also a big force on defense, blocking Shaun Stonerook and unleashing Wright on a fastbreak to make it 10-17. Five straight points by Lonny Baxter brought Siena closer as Ostende continued to struggle from the free-throw line (4-for-9 after 8 minutes), but Wright nailed an incredible triple as the 24-second clock expired to put Telindus up 15-21. Siena answered with a dunk by Luigi Datome, but the first quarter ended with Ostende ahead 17-22. After some quiet minutes, McIntyre appeared with a pair of three-pointers to put Montepaschi ahead for the first time. Baxter added three points of his own to cap a 9-0 run for the hosts. Ostende didn't wait to respond and took the lead again through Postell and Hicks. But two turnovers in a row by Ovcina and an 8-2 run sparked by McIntyre and Baxter gave Siena a 5-point advantage. Wright's jumper fixed the score at 38-36 at halftime.

The second half started with 2 minutes of turnovers and missed shots for both teams. Ocvina broke the ice with a dunk, which was followed by Forte, who maintained a 2-point lead for Siena. Sam Van Rossom blasted the tie in an awful third quarter, but Romain Sato and Forte answered from downtown, pushing Siena to 47-43. The hosts were more aggressive alternating zone and man defenses and added other 6 free throws with Sato, Baxter and Forte making it 53-43. Hicks tried to reduce the difference, but at the end of the third quarter, the score was 54-45. A Datome three-pointer and a Kaukenas layup helped Siena to build a double digit-margin at the beginning of the fourth quarter. A flagrant foul by Postell on Stonerook gave Montepaschi the chance to increase the lead, but the hosts earned owned only 1 point and in the following play, Van Rossom reduced to 60-49. Two free throws by Wright brought Oostende back within 9, but Kaukenas answered with basket and foul to make it 63-51 as the clock became more of a factor, showing only three-and-a-half minutes to go. Oostende's best efforts reduced Siena's lead to 65-57, but Kaukenas once again switched shut the visitors down and effectively ended their season as Montepaschi fans celebrated a 73-62 win and the first place in group C.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Federico Cappelli, Siena
No results found.
Referees: MEDAN, DRAGAN; LOTTERMOSER, ROBERT; RUTESIC, ZDRAVKO
Attendance: 4488
By Quarter1234
Montepaschi17211619
Oostende2214917
End of Quarter1234
Montepaschi17385473
Oostende22364562
Montepaschi
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 FORTE, JOSEPH 25:00 10 1/4 2/4 2/2   3 3 3 1 1     2 4 13
5 MCINTYRE, TERRELL 25:00 16 0/1 4/8 4/4 1 2 3 2 1 4       4 17
6 BAXTER, LONNY 26:00 16 6/11   4/7 3 6 9 1 4 1 1 1 3 4 22
7 BOISA, VLADIMER 15:00     0/2     1 1 1   1     3   -4
8 EZE, BENJAMIN 13:00   0/1     1 1 2 1   1 1   3   -1
9 CARRARETTO, MARCO 5:00     0/1                   1   -2
10 SATO, ROMAIN 23:00 7 0/1 1/2 4/6 1 4 5 2 3 1     1 6 17
11 DATOME, LUIGI 16:00 5 1/2 1/3   1   1   1       1 1 4
12 D'ERCOLE, LORENZO 1:00 2 1/1                         2
13 KAUKENAS, RIMANTAS 28:00 16 3/5 2/4 4/5 1 2 3 3 2 3     3 5 18
18 LECHTHALER, LUCA 1:00                     1   1    
20 STONEROOK, SHAUN 22:00 1 0/2 0/2 1/2   4 4 1 2 1   1 3 1 -1
Team             2 2   4 1         5
Totals 200:00 73 12/28 10/26 19/26 8 25 33 14 18 14 3 2 21 25 90
        42.9% 38.5% 73.1%
Head coach: PIANIGIANI, SIMONE
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Oostende
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 ILONGO, CHRISTIAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
5 LHOTE, LAURENT 2:00         1   1           1    
6 VAN ROSSOM, SAM 37:00 9 3/4 1/1     1 1   1 3     4   3
7 WRIGHT, RASHAD 40:00 13 3/6 1/8 4/6 1 2 3 4   1     4 6 9
8 POSTELL, LAVOR 30:00 11 1/1 1/3 6/6 1 7 8 5 1 2     4 4 21
9 BELLIN, SEBASTIEN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
10 PETROVIC, VESELIN 12:00 5 2/5 0/1 1/3 2   2   4 3   2 3 2 -1
12 MC GOWAN, GLEN ANTHONY 10:00   0/2   0/2           1     4 1 -8
14 HICKS, ERIC 35:00 12 6/10   0/5 4 6 10 1 1 3 1   4 3 12
15 OVCINA, ELVIR 34:00 12 3/11 1/1 3/4 2 10 12 2 2 4 1 1 1 5 19
Team                   4 1         3
Totals 200:00 62 18/39 4/14 14/26 11 26 37 12 13 18 2 3 25 21 58
        46.2% 28.6% 53.8%
Head coach: DRUCKER, SHARON
This game is not yet played

Head Coaches

PIANIGIANI, SIMONE
Montepaschi
"We knew that Oostende would use the zone to try to reduce our offense. They have done the same facing Hapoel which has a system like ours. At the beginning of the game we were a little bit nervous as attacking the 2-3 zone but the answer was good in the second quarter. We wanted to win this game to keep on with our growth process."
DRUCKER, SHARON
Oostende
"I want to congratulate Siena for the first place in our group. I think we have done a good job in defense but in offense we have missed too many free shots and it is very hard to win in a court such this with those averages. During the season we have had lots of problems also for injuries but now we want to focus on our championship."

Players

STONEROOK, SHAUN
Montepaschi
"The importante thing was to win this game because we wanted to win the regular season with the best record among all groups. The zone? We have a lot of players who can shoot from the arc with high percentage and they took open shots. But we have to be more aggressive coming into the paint."
No results found.