Fortitudo Beghelli Bologna beat Panellinios 67-85 on the road to close its campaign on high note. The win keep Fortitudo in fifth place in Group F with a 4-6 record. Panellinios, which had no chance of advancing to the Last 32, dropped its ninth consecutive game since an opening night win to wind up 1-9 and in last place in the group. The visitors controlled the game for most of the first half, before the hosts managed to tie it at 41-41 at the beginning of the third quarter. Fortitudo, reacted with a crucial 22-9 streak to put the basis for an easy final win. Dante Calabria fired in 4 triples en route to his 20 points, half of them coming in the deciding second part of the third period. Dalibor Bagaric posted 13 points and 9 rebounds, while Stefano Mancinelli, Iker Iturbe and Davide Lamma scored 11 points apiece. Anthony Grundy finished with 16 points and 5 assists for Panellinios, while Milan Dozet contributed 12 and Nikos Argyrpoulos, Vangelis Sklavos had 11 each.
Fortitudo started the game ready to dictate the tempo. Oscar Torres, James Thomas and a three-pointer by Kristaps Janicenoks led the guests to a 3-12 start. Argyropoulos scored 5 in the row to offer solutions for Panellinios, but it was still obvious that the hosts faced trouble. Bologna took advantage to close the first quarter up 11-19 with plays by Lamma and Mancinelli. Fortituto continued to control the score with a 14-25 lead before Pantelis Papaioakim and Dozet cut it to 5. But, still, the visitors found it easy to increase the margin to 19-28 through Mancinelli and Calabria. The hosts reacted before halftime with points mainly coming from the free-throw line to trim it to 31-35. Grundy stepped up to lead Panellinios within 1 and later netted a triple to tie the game at 41-41. However, Bologna answered back with a critical 22-9 run within five minutes thanks to 10 points from Calabria to bring the difference to 50-63 after three periods. The deficit reached 15 points, at 50-65, and later on at 58-73 with baskets coming from Mancinelli until 67-85, which was meant to be not only the biggest margin, but the final outcome, too, as Panellinios did not have any motivation to fight back.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Stelios Kyiakoglou, Athens