CEZ Nymburk took a commanding 79-62 win at home against BCM Gravelines, lifting its Group I record to 2-0 and improving its chances to reach the Quarterfinals. The winners will face Valencia next week in the battle for first place, while Gravelines confronts VEF Riga in a must-win situation. Tre Simmons led all scorers with 25 points, including 5 of 10 from downtown. He also dished out 7 assists. Mike Lenzly tallied 11 and Petr Benda added 10. J.K. Edwards paced the losers with 16 points. Juby Johnson added 11 points and Rudy Jomby 10 in defeat. Gravelines started strong and led 17-10 after the first quarter, but Nymburk got on track in the second, then Simmons got hot after the break to help seal the win with a 31-17 third quarter.

Benda scored 4 of Nymburk’s first 6 points as the hosts got out to a 6-2 lead. But Gravelines responded with a 13-0 surge, as J.K. Edwards knocked down a pair of two-pointers, Andrew Albicy hit a layup and a triple, and Jomby added two baskets in the paint to open a 6-15 margin. The scoring then shifted back to Nymburk as Lamayne Wilson hit twice from two-point range, cutting the deficit to 10-15. Edwards scored another two-pointer as the quarter ended with the visitors on top 10-17. The second 10 minutes opened with a three-pointer by Nymburk’s Lenzly, slicing the lead to 13-17. After Edwards and Benda exchanged two-pointers, Adrian Abrams and Lenzly each hit a two-pointer from outside to knot the game at 19-19. The teams hit a dry spell but the back-and-forth scoring resumed 2 minutes later as Johnson drained a triple, then Albicy and Edwards added two-pointers to give Gravelines a 23-28 lead. Nymburk’s Simmons suddenly took control, burying two straight from downtown to give the hosts their first lead since the opening minutes, 29-28. Pavel Pumprla scored his first points of the game to bump Nymburk’s lead to 31-28 at the half.

Simmons kept the hot hand for Nymburk, draining 5 straight, including another from beyond the arc to lift the lead to 36-28. After Jomby stopped the surge with a triple of his own, Pumprla put in a layup and foul shot to push the score to 39-31. Jomby nailed another from downtown, then Simmons added 5 points from outside, upping the scoreboard to 44-34. After Khalif added a layup, Benda dunked, and then Simmons and Wilson each added triples as Nymburk opened a 52-37 lead. The hosts cruised, led by Lenzly, who continued the three-point barrage, stretching the margin to 62-41. A pair of two-pointers in the final 37 seconds helped Gravelines cut the deficit to 62-45 at the end of 30 minutes. The teams swapped points to open the quarter, but a pair of threes by Johnson helped bring Gravelines closer, 66-54. Simmons stopped the rally with a two-pointer from outside, then the teams resumed back-and-forth scoring as the score rose to 72-59. Nymburk closed the game with a 7-3 run and a well-earned 79-62 victory.