Khimik rallies from 14 down, stuns Strasbourg
Khimik Yuzhne rallied from a 14-point halftime deficit to down Strasbourg on the road 72-78. Win improved Khimik to 2-0 in a share of Group N lead with Alba Berlin, while Strasbourg dropped to 0-2. The hosts stormed out of the gate with Romain Duport scoring 9 points for 14-2 lead, and with a 9-1 run at the end of the second quarter Strasbourg took 41-27 halftime lead. But Jamal Shuler rallied Khimik in the third, and as the game went into its final minutes, Romeo Travis scored 7 points in a row, giving Khimik 62-67, and lead for good. Shuler finished with 25 points, Travis had 17 points plus 7 rebounds, and Matt Gatens netted 16 in victory. Romain Duport led Strasbourg with 20 points and 9 rebounds. Ricardo Greer scored 16, and Louis Campbell had 14 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists in defeat.
Strasbourg had a great start to the game. A run of 14 consecutive points started with a layup from Tim Abromaitis, followed by a string of 7 points from Duport, including a basket-plus-foul. Campbell nailed a three-pointer, and Duport’s dunk made it 14-2. Shuler ended the drought for the visitors with a triple, and with help from Vitaliy Kovalenko and Oleksandr Riabchuk cut it to 19-11 after 10 minutes. Gatens sank a pair of three-pointers early in the second for 22-18, but Greer and Duport kept the hosts in front. Greer’s layup made it 32-24, and the hosts finished the quarter on a 9-1 run behind layups from Campbell and a triple from Bootsy Thornton for 41-27 halftime lead.
Khimik had the better start to the third quarter as a jumper from Travis, before a triple and a jumper from Gatens cut it to 41-34. Strasbourg regained a double-digit lead with buckets from Greer, Duport and Campbell, but on the other end Shuler strung together 14 points to end the quarter, including a dunk and couple of triples for 54-52 after 30 minutes. Stanislav Zavadskyi and Travis put Khimik into the lead at the start of the fourth, 54-56. Teams traded baskets, with Duport and Lacombe scoring for the hosts, while Shuler kept Khimik with a slim lead before Travis scored 7 points in a row, including a triple that got the visitors to 62-67. Gatens and Thornton traded three-pointers, but Paul Delaney scored a layup with less than a minute to go for 67-74, sealing the deal.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Eurocupbasketball.com