2005-06Regular SeasonRound 9
January 04, 2006 CET: 20:45
Local time: 20:45 ABDI IPEKCI ARENA
There is new second-place team in Group C after Unicaja hung on for a 76-83 road win over Ulker on Wednesday in Istanbul. The victory lifted Unicaja's record to 7-2 and practically assured it passage to the Top 16. It also was good for sole possession of second place after CSKA lost to group leader Panathinaikos. Ulker, meanwhile, fell into danger at 2-7 at the bottom of the table. Daniel Santiago was huge inside for the winners with 20 points and 13 rebounds. Marcus Brown added 19 for Unicaja, while Jorge Garbajosa put up 15 points, including 5 in a row at a key moment in the final quarter. Jeff Trepagnier was Ulker's top scorer, with 17 points, while Vrbica Stefanov added 15 and new center Robert Gulyas 12.

Ulker got off to a good start with high-percentage outside shooting as Kutluay nailed a pair of early jumpers. Walter Herrmann matched them with layups for Unicaja. Likewise, when Ulker got inside points by Haislip, Unicaja got them outside from Garbajosa, who made it a 10-12 score. Ulker finally shot itself way ahead as Vrbica Stefanov and Jeff Trepagnier put in 3 consectuvie three-pointers to put the hosts ahead 18-10. Unicaja struggled to use the paint but got a jumper from Garbajosa and a layup by Brown to stay close, however Haislip and Trepagnier bumped Ulker's lead up to 22-14. Santiago appeared then to hit a free throw and dunk and help trim Ulker's advantage to 22-18 after a quarter.

Unicaja had en impressive start to the second quarter, going on a 2-10 run fueled by triples from Cabezas and Berni Rodriguez. A layup by Cabezas finished it with the guests in front, 24-28. Ulker got help from its new center, Gulyas, who landed his first jump shot to start a 7-1 run that Stefanov finished with a layup to take back the lead, 31-29. Then it was Unicaja's turn again, this time from downtown. Boom, boom, boom came triples from Brown, Cabezas and Rodriguez to vault the guests in front 31-38. Ulker needed a response in the 2 minutes left and got it with 2 points each from Trepagnier, Mirsad Turkcan and Omer Onan to trim the difference to 37-40 at the half.

In the third quarter, the battle moved underneath the baskets as each team fought for control of the game. Gulyas was a catalyst for Ulker, throwing his weight around to scoring a pair of baskets, the second of which forged a 46-46 tie. When he put in free throws a couple minutes later, the hosts had a 50-48 lead. Their only problem ws tht Santiago was fully warmed up at the other end. His third basket of the quarter tied it 50-50 and set up Brown's go-ahead triple. Kutluay got to the line for 3 free throws to tie, but Santiago dunked and scored a close shot in a 0-6 run that pushed Unicaja ahead 53-59. Gulyas, Turkcan and Trepagnier matched that run to tie 59-59 and rouse the crowd, but Santiago and Rodriguez finished the quarter giving the guests a 59-63 advantage.

Cabezas started the final quarter with a triple and Garbajosa added a layup as Unicaja took its biggest lead at 59-68. Stefanov got 3 back on one shot from the arc, then his and Haislip's baskets plus a free throw by Turkcan trimmed the difference to 67-70. That, however is when Garbajosa took over with 5 straight points, a running hook on a loose ball and a triple on the break, to put the visitors in charge at 67-75. Santiago soon scored for the double-digit difference and Cabezas pushed it to 11 points, 67-78, with a free throw. Ulker tried it hard in the remaining minutes, coming to within 76-80 on a late triple by Turkcan, but Unicaja managed the rest of the time for its sixth win in a row.
Wednesday, January 4, 2006
Gokhan Ture, Istanbul
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Referees: BELOSEVIC, ILIJA; LAMONICA, LUIGI; BACHAR, SHMUEL; KAMNIKAR, ALES
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
Ulker22152217
Unicaja18222320
End of Quarter1234
Ulker22375976
Unicaja18406383
Ulker
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 STEFANOV, VRBICA 37:45 13 3/12 2/3 1/1   1 1 4 1 1     3 3 8
5 PASALIC, DRAGO DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
6 TURKCAN, MIRSAD 27:45 10 2/2 1/2 3/4 1 6 7 1 1 1     3 3 16
7 ONAN, OMER 5:45 2   0/1 2/2         1 1     1 1 1
9 YARANGUME, BEKIR DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
10 KUTLUAY, IBRAHIM 35:15 11 3/5 0/5 5/5   5 5 3 1 4   1 4 4 8
11 ERDEN, CUNEYT 3:45                         1   -1
12 TREPAGNIER, JEFF 40:00 17 3/4 2/4 5/7 1 1 2   4 2     1 4 19
13 YANNIER, DERYA DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
14 SAVAS, OGUZ 7:15   0/1     1   1 2     1       3
15 HAISLIP, MARCUS 23:30 11 4/6 0/1 3/7 3 9 12     3 4   3 6 20
18 GULYAS, ROBERT 19:00 12 5/6   2/2 1 1 2     3     5 1 6
Team           1   1               1
Totals 200:00 76 20/36 5/16 21/28 8 23 31 10 8 15 5 1 21 22 81
        55.6% 31.3% 75%
Head coach: ATAMAN, ERGIN
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
Unicaja
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 SANCHEZ, PEPE 14:00           1 1 2         3    
5 RODRIGUEZ, BERNI 29:30 12 3/3 2/5 0/1 2   2 1 2 2 1   2 3 13
6 RISACHER, STEPHANE 4:30   0/2           1   3   1 2   -7
8 LAZARO CORRAL, JESUS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
10 CABEZAS, CARLOS 26:00 13 1/2 3/5 2/4 1 3 4 4 1 2     1 3 17
11 PIETRUS, FLORENT 11:45   0/1       1 1         1 4   -5
12 HERRMANN, WALTER 10:45 4 2/5 0/2         2       1   1 1
15 GARBAJOSA, JORGE 37:15 15 3/4 3/8     2 2 4 5       4 2 18
22 SHEBOUROV, MAXIM DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
25 SANTIAGO, DANIEL 30:00 20 8/11   4/6 4 9 13 1 1     1 4 6 31
41 BROWN, MARCUS 36:15 19 6/11 2/5 1/3 1 1 2 5   5   1 2 6 14
Team           1 1 2               2
Totals 200:00 83 23/39 10/25 7/14 9 18 27 20 9 12 1 5 22 21 84
        59% 40% 50%
Head coach: SCARIOLO, SERGIO
This game has no play by play yet

Head Coaches

ATAMAN, ERGIN
Ulker
"We weren't able to perform on the court, what we planned before the match. We gave too many opportunities to Unicaja Malaga, which was really left wide open to score. And they punished those mistakes really well. When we balanced the game, the turnovers came into action then. Those are not the mistakes of a team which is challenging for the Top 16. We must work hard and try to lessen our mistakes to go through to the Top 16."
SCARIOLO, SERGIO
Unicaja
"This is a big win for us. Virtually we are in the Top 16. This is a great result because it only happened once before in our history so far. I think we played better defense than we have been doing in the last 2 or 3 weeks. In the second half we were more patient on offense too. In the first half, we struggled with the inside shots and were blocked in most of the attempts. In the second half we played better on offense, waited until we found wide open shots and 20 assists is really a good number for a match. The illness of Pietrus and the early injury of Herrmann made it a little bit harder for us. But the other guys did their jobs excellently. We have beaten a talented team like Ulker and to do it in Istanbul is much more important for us."

Players

KUTLUAY, IBRAHIM
Ulker
"We lost the game especially because of the way they defended. They really did their job excellently and we failed to answer them in the same way, especially in the last quarter. They are well organized for that and they closed all the ways to find open shots from outside. We weren't able to shoot easily. They found numerous points from the penetrations and we let Unicaja have many second chances to do it. But we are still alive in the group and will try to find the way for Top 16 until the end. If we win all of our home matches and beat Pau-Orthez away, we can get what we want.
BROWN, MARCUS
Unicaja
"Ulker played really hard. They played well defensively. We also defended very good most of the game. We limited their offensive rebounds. I think tonight we really contested all the shots, made it really difficult for them to score. Offensively we got a lot of open shots and burned them with rotations. But late in the game we were defensively better than Ulker. It's really great to come back to Turkey. It always has a special place in my heart."
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