A steal and fastbreak slam dunk by Joseph Blair of Scavolini Pesaro will go down as the first scoring play of the 2001-02 Euroleague regular season, but the thrill of the comeback in Perm, Russia on Wednesday went to the local team, Ural Great. Sergei Belov's boys came back from 12 down in the first half to blitz Scavolini in the last 15 minutes. Final score: 99-88 before 7,000 delighted fans at Molot Arena. Ural goes to 1-0 in Group D, and Scavolini 0-1. Ural was down 54-61 to Scavolini midway through the third quarter, about the same margin of difference since the second quarter, when the home team shook off its early doldrums. Now, however, Ural buttoned up its defense and held Scavolini to just 10 points over the next 10 minutes. In the meantime, the hosts were scoring 31, a run from which the guests could not come back. An 85-71 lead with 5 minutes to go was one thing, but having been bowled over after leading the first 25 minutes left Scavolini stunned. Valery Daineko scored 229 points to lead Ural, who got 19 more from Mikhail Mikhailov and 15 from Rusan Avleev. Ural Great wasted 30 points from Blair and 17 from Miroslav Beric.

The beginning of the first Euroleague game came hard to Ural Great. Scavolini started with agressive defense and it took the home team almost 12 minutes to find their way to the basket. At the other end, it took Scavolini only 4 minutes in the end of the first half to score 17 points. That period included a perfect performance by Blair and two three-pointers by Beric. Ural Great answered with 6 points but that was not enough. The audience began to boo. It was the first time in two seasons that Ural Great was seen struggling at home.

In the second quarter Italian team decided to put zone defence but it did not work. Ural kept having problems getting its shooters started, but it was no problem for Daineko, who put up 8 points as the home team almost evened the score in the middle of the period, 30-32. The real comeback would come only in the second half. Ural Great finaly started to play good defence. In four minutes the only player who was able to score for Scavolini was Blair. Daineko went on another offensive roll, appreciative perhaps after a poor 2000-01 season in PAOK of Greece for more playing time and scoring responsiblility. Daineko had scored 29 in a road win in the Russian League on Sunday.

Seven minutes into the second half, Ural Great took the lead thanks 4 points in a row by Rusan Avleev. From that moment Scavolini did not get an oppotunity for its own to come back. Ural Great put all the effort and all their abilities to bring Perm the first victory in Euroleague.