CEZ Basketball Nymburk held off a late Cibona Zagreb rally for a 77-84 road win in the Croatian capital on Wednesday. The Czech champs never trailed, pulling away with a 0-13 run en route to a 20-36 halftime lead. The visitors led by 22 in the fourth quarter before Davor Kus led a 14-0 run and late canned a triple to make it a 3-point game in the final minute. However Nymburk made 8 free throws in the final half-minute – 6 of them by Rado Rancik – to seal the win. Tre Simmons paced the winners with 24 points and 6 assists, helping Nymburk improve to 4-3 in Group A. Rancik added 13 points, including making 9 free throws without a miss. Vlado Ilievski scored 11 and Rasid Mahalbasic 10 for Nymburk. Kus missed just one shot en route to 22 points to lead Cibona, which dropped to 1-6 and was formally eliminated from the race for a Last 32 spot. Martin Junakovic added 12 points, Matt Janning collected 11 points, 6 assists and 3 steals and Dario Saric finished with 10 points and 3 steals in defeat.

Nymburk never trailed as it took charge on defense early, forcing a turnover on the game’s opening possession and keeping Cibona scoreless for five minutes during which a pair of Tre Simmons baskets made it 0-6. Janning’s steal led to Dario Saric scoring the hosts’ first points. Pavel Houska completed a three-point play, but Janning and Andrija Zizic narrowed the gap to 7-11. Dylan Page put Nymburk up 6 after 10 minutes. The visitors scored 11 unanswered points to start the second quarter and zoomed ahead 7-24 after back-to-back Ilievski triples. Kus completed a rare four-point play for Cibona, but several more minutes passed before Marko Jagosik split free throws to make it 12-28. The hosts got to the line on a series of possession, but Rado Rancik’s free throws made it 20-36 at the break. Rancik converted a three-point play to make it a 20-point game early in the second half. A Jiri Welsch three made it 23-46. Darko Planinic scored from the line and Saric came through with a basket-plus-foul, but a Simmons three kept Nymburk in control. Junakovic’s free throw ended the third quarter at 40-58. A Dylan Page three all but wrapped up the game, 44-66, a minute into the fourth quarter. Just when all seemed lost, Cibona’s attack started to click. Janning had 2 steals and 2 assists and Kus scored 8 in a 14-0 run. Page connected from behind the arc to make it 58-69 with four minutes to go. Cibona made one last run and closed to within 5 with two minutes left before Kus’s fourth three of the night closed the gap to 73-76 with 28 seconds remaining. However 6 free throws by Rancik and 2 from Thomas Massamba in the final 30 seconds helped ice the game and a key road win for Nymburk.