Cedevita pulls away in fourth for comfortable win at Arka

Cedevita Zagreb collected its first road win of the 7DAYS EuroCup season by pulling away in the fourth quarter for a 61-78 victory at Arka Gdynia in Group B. Justin Cobbs led the way with 13 points for Cedevita, which improved to 2-1 in the group. James Bell and Vitor Benite both added 12 points and Augusto Lima chipped in 10 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks for the winners. Arka dropped to 0-3 and is still looking for its first victory in the competition since February 2004. Josh Bostic paced Arka with 17 points and James Florence added 16, while leading scorer and rebounder Robert Upshaw III was held to just 2 points and 4 rebounds after playing with a leg injury suffered in the opening minute. Veteran point guard Kryzstof Szubarga did not play for the hosts.

Cedevita scored the first 4 points before Mikolaj Witlinski answered with the next 5 points for his home town club and Bostic's three-pointer made it 8-4. Bostic added 3 free throws and Florence and Deividas Dulkys both nailed triples to help Arka go up 19-14 after 10 minutes. Bell opened the second frame with back-to-back three-pointers to put Cedevita up 19-20. The lead switched hands four times with Elgin Cook starting an 0-6 spurt for a 24-29 lead. Arka managed to knot the game at 33-33, but Cedevita was up 33-35 at the break. Arka evened the game at 37-37 and grabbed the lead at 40-39 on Bostic's three-pointer. Ivan Ramljak answered right back for Cedevita with a three and Benite's basket snapped a three-minute scoreless stretch before Pablo Aguilar layups gave the guests a 47-55 advantage, which was 49-55 going into the final quarter. Marcel Ponitka's three-pointer to start the fourth trimmed the gap to 3 points, but Benite tallied the next 8 points and an Aguilar free throw had Cedevita up 52-64. Florence converted two baskets for Arka, but Cedevita finished off the hosts with a 0-7 spurt for a 56-73 advantage.

History made

Cedevita’s victory over Arka was a historic one as the Zagreb club was playing its first official game in Poland.

Game-changing sequence

Cedevita was leading just 52-55 early in the fourth quarter when Vitor Benite tallied 8 straight points in helping the guests pull ahead 52-64. Arka would not get closer than 10 points the rest of the way.

Key performer

Justin Cobbs not only had 13 points, but he also collected 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal for the winning team.

Hidden stat

Cedevita dominated the glass, out-rebounding Arka 54-36 including grabbing 19 offensive rebounds.

Next games

Arka heads back out onto the road next week on the hunt for its first victory in the EuroCup when it plays at ALBA Berlin. Cedevita can grab a third straight win next week when it hosts group leader Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar.