2008-09Regular SeasonRound 7
December 11, 2008 CET: 21:15
Local time: 21:15 PALAU OLIMPIC DE BADALONA

DKV Joventut overcame Lottomatica Roma 97-93

Another would-be Top 16 qualifier was denied in Week 7 when DKV Joventut defeated Lottomatica Roma 97-93 in an offensive thriller in Badalona, Spain on Thursday. Joventut improved to 4-3 and took over third place in Group C, while Roma dropped to 5-2 and a first-place tie with Tau Ceramica. Roma, which lost its head coach on Monday, gave interim bench boss Nando Gentile a great effort, but Joventut's all-court energy wore down the guests in the final 5 minutes. The first half was an up-and-down scoring show that ended 48-48. Even when Joventut lifted off like a rocket to a 15-point lead in the third quarter, 71-56, Roma was far from done. The visitors rallied to within 78-75 in the final quarter, but Joventut's final surge was a little too much for Roma. Bracey Wright led the winners with 19 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists. Luka Bogdanovic added 15 points, including a killer triple late, while Eduardo Hernandez-Sonseca had 14 and Demond Mallet 12. Roma got 22 points and 8 rebounds from Andre Hutson. Sani Becirovic added 14, Brandon Jennings added 12 each, Rodrigo De la Fuente and Ibrahim Jaaber 11 each.

Bogdanovic who got the scoreboard going with a triple from the corner for Joventut. Hutson got Roma on the board with free throws, but Henk Noral went inside for a basket-plus-free throw and Ferran Laviña hit 2 from the line to make it 6-2. Roberto Gabini answered with Roma's first triple, and as Norel went down with a whack to the nose, Rodrigo De la Fuente hit from the arc, too, for an 8-8 tie. Laviña drove untouched for a layup, but Hutson tied again at the foul line. Ricky Rubio entered and forced a turnover in seconds, getting Wright to the foul line to make it 12-10, but Joventut slept as Jennings got behind the press for a layup. Jennings went through the Joventut defense for the go-ahead layup. Hernandez-Sonseca entered and executed a three-point play to retake the lead for the hosts, After a turnover, Roma needed timeout, but got quick baskets from Primoz Brezec and Jaaber immediately to go up 15-18. Simas Jasaitis and Jabber traded layups before Jan Jagla's 3 free throws in 4 tries tied it up again. It was still tied when Rubio passed fullcourt to Laviña for a go-ahead layup at 26-24 on the first-quarter buzzer.

To start the second quarter, Hernandez-Sonseca's scored on a hook-and-free throw and then a layup fed to him by Rubio, but Roma answered with a Jennings layup and Brezec three-point play in the paint. When Jaaber tipped in a miss, Roma had tied it up again, 31-31, but Rubio and Mallet fed Bogdanovic consecutive alley-oops. When Wright struck from downtown, Joventut's lead had cliimbed to 38-33. Hutson answered inside, but next Jagla fired from deep to make it 41-35. After another timeout, Jaaber brought Roma back with a smooth triple, then fed De la Fuente twice inside, for a backdoor layup and a trip to the foul line and a 43-42 scoreboard. Joventut needed the timeout now, but Jacopo Giachetti raced coast-to-coast with the go-ahead layup for Roma. Joventut took it back on a second-chance rainbow shot by Wright. Hutson tied it with a free throw before Pau Ribas blasted a triple that Luigi Datome matched at 48-48, ending a thriller of a first half.

Norel returned with a mask to down his first shot right after halftime, but Gabini put Roma ahead 50-51 with a rocket from the corner. Bagdonavic answered with a layup to which Ribas added a steal and dunk as Joventut took the lead again, 54-51. After a Roma timeout, it was Bogdanovic again, dunking and hitting a free throw as Joventut's defense ruled, but the home team suffered a downer as Norel went off with an ankle injury on an intentional foul by Hutson. Mallet made 1 of 2 free throws and Jasaitis waltzed for a layup. Gabini and Mallett fired up dueling triples to make it 63-54 before De la Fuente and Wright traded free throws, the latter's on an intentional foul. Wright completed the possession with a huge triple, then stole and fed Mallet in the same spot. When his shot went down, too, it was 71-56 and the Badalona crowd was hitting the roof. After a timeout, Becirovic calmed the visitors, who now set up a zone defense, with a bank shot. Two Joventut turnovers and 5 points by Hutson later, it was 71-63 and Joventut was calling timeout. As soon as it was over, Gentile was tagged with a technical foul, Wright downed both free throws, but Htuson got a third-chance basket and a fastbreak dunk to make it 73-67. Jagla came off the bench and buried a triple to lift Joventut's spirits, but Becirovic dampened them again with a steal and layup for a 76-69 score after 30 minutes.

Roma's resurgence continued with Hutson and Jennings scoring in close to open the fourth quarter, making it a whole new ballgame at 77-73 after a 6-17 run. Norel got to the line and sank 1 of 2 for Joventut, whose pressure didn't prevent Jabber from getting a layup at 78-75. The ball ricocheted around the court without going through the basket for what seemed like an eternity, for this game, until Rubio found Wright for a two-point jumper and Ribas downed 1 of 2 free throws to make it 81-75 with under 6 mintes left. Hernandez-Sonseca dunked alone on a pass from Wright, and after Roma's 20th turnover, Mallet appeared in the corner for a high-arcing triple that brought down the house and brought back a double-digit lead, 86-75. When Laviña shot alone from the arc moments later, it was 91-77 and the visitors were down to gunning at a chance to rally. Hutson got it back to single digits with 4 points in a row at 91-83 with still more than 2 minutes left. Becirovic scored next to quiet the crowd at 91-85, but Bogdanovic stepped up with a big corner triple to almost settle the matter. In the last minute, however, Roma's zone held Joventut to a single free throw scoreless as De la Fuente, Brezec and Becirovic combined for 8 points to make it 95-93 with 17 seconds left. The next foul, on Becirovic, was called intentional, giving Ribas 2 free throws and Joventut the ball and th win. Joventut moved up in the standings and Roma must wait on Top 16 qualification.

Thursday, December 11, 2008
Euroleague.net
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Referees: PITSILKAS, NIKOLAOS; GKONTAS, SPIROS; ZAMOJSKI, JAKUB
Attendance: 5035
By Quarter1234
DKV Joventut26222821
Lottomatica Roma24242124
End of Quarter1234
DKV Joventut26487697
Lottomatica Roma24486993
DKV Joventut
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
00 MALLET, DEMOND 24:42 12 0/2 3/11 3/4       5 2 3   1 2 2 4
4 RIBAS, PAU 21:22 8 1/3 1/5 3/4 1   1 5 2       4 4 9
6 WRIGHT, BRACEY 32:12 19 3/6 2/4 7/8 1 6 7 3 2 1     2 5 27
9 RUBIO, RICKY 8:34           1 1 3 1 3       1 3
10 BOGDANOVIC, LUKA 28:37 15 4/6 2/5 1/1 1 2 3 1   2   1   2 13
13 JASAITIS, SIMAS 14:08 4 2/2 0/3                   2 1  
14 JAGLA, JAN 17:29 9 0/1 2/5 3/4 1 3 4   2   1   4 2 9
16 HERNANDEZ-SONSECA, EDU 22:45 14 5/8   4/4 1 3 4 1 2 2 1 1 5 3 14
17 NOREL, HENK 8:08 7 2/3   3/3                 1 3 8
18 LAVINA, FERRAN 18:24 9 2/2 1/1 2/2 1   1 2         5 2 9
19 TOMAS, PERE 3:39                              
Team           3 1 4   1           5
Totals 200:00 97 19/33 11/34 26/30 9 16 25 20 12 11 2 3 25 25 101
        57.6% 32.4% 86.7%
Head coach: ALONSO, SITO
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
Lottomatica Roma
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
5 GIACHETTI, JACOPO 9:46 2 1/1 0/1         1 1       2   1
7 BECIROVIC, SANI 17:19 14 4/7 0/1 6/6   3 3 5 2 4   1 4 7 18
8 TONOLLI, ALESSANDRO 2:34         1   1           1    
9 HUTSON, ANDRE 30:02 22 7/9   8/10 5 3 8   1 3 1   2 7 30
11 JENNINGS, BRANDON 22:54 12 5/8 0/2 2/2       2         3 1 7
12 BREZEC, PRIMOZ 17:37 9 4/7   1/1 2 2 4     2 1   3 1 7
13 DATOME, LUIGI 15:48 3 0/2 1/3   2 4 6 1   2   1 3 1 1
14 DE LA FUENTE, RODRIGO 31:28 11 1/3 1/3 6/6 2 4 6     1     3 4 13
21 JAABER, IBRAHIM 32:40 11 4/6 1/4 0/2 1 6 7 4 1 5     1 4 14
22 GABINI, ROBERTO 19:52 9 0/1 3/4     2 2 4 1 3 1   3   9
Team           1 1 2     2     1   -1
Totals 200:00 93 26/44 6/18 23/27 14 25 39 17 6 22 3 2 26 25 99
        59.1% 33.3% 85.2%
Head coach: GENTILE, NANDO

Head Coaches

ALONSO, SITO
DKV Joventut
"I would like to thank first the players. Maybe sometimes we forget how hard it is to beat a great team like Roma, even at home, with everything that is happening to us. We though Edu Sonseca-Hernandez might miss the game, but in no way did we expect he could play 22 minutes. Then, early in the first quarter, Henk Norel probably broke his nose, and when he came back later, got hit in the knee and couldn't play anymore. I think all the players worked to overcome some of those difficult situations. We had some brilliant moments on offense and then they stopped us with a zone press, followed up by the halfcourt zone, that took a lot of seconds away from our attack. Without big guys, we couldn't defend as well our basket and didn't have them to help us inside on offense. And we haven't had the defensive level to win against any team, except for short periods during thuis game. We have to remember who we are defensively. So, we haven't been great at the end of this game, but yes, we were better than some other times."
GENTILE, NANDO
Lottomatica Roma
"We had a strange week with the resignation of Jasmin Repesa as coach. It has been mentally tough and worrisome for us, just a very difficult week altogether. We came here for a game against a team that is playing really well right now, as their 20-point win in Ljlubljana last week showed. We knew it wasn't going to be easy, and it hasn't been, but I have to say that we fought for 40 minutes together, even though at the end the victory escaped from us. So I can only be satisfied that my players have shown this character and fought the whole game in such a tough place to play."

Players

WRIGHT, BRACEY
DKV Joventut
"It has been a good game, a very good game. Roma is a very good team that came here as one of the top two teams in our group. It was a physically tough game, fun to play but tough. We made the key plays when we needed them and got the victory. They went to the zone late and maybe we settled for three-point shots too early in our possessions. We knew from the last time we played them how they were capable of making a run. But we play comfortable here at home in front of our crowd, and them being behind us made a difference. This one was especially important because we dropped a home game here in our group earlier. We've had a couple games now that have been kind to us here, so if we can pick one up on the road, we can try to qualify soon."
BECIROVIC, SANI
Lottomatica Roma
"The most important thing is that we stayed together and had a chance to win after a tough week for us. We lost our coach and it was not so much his fault, all our losses in the Italian Leauge. The players had their responsibility, too. But after this game, I'd say we just have to continue this way with the attitude we showed here. We gave everything we had and in the last seconds we were still fighting for the win. Joventut is a tough team and very hard to beat at home. They have a great crowd and they like to run here. We did our best, it wasn't enough, but we'll keep going strong next week."
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