It was another easy night for Pamesa Valencia on Tuesday when, despite having already advanced, it cruised to a 94-66 Group B home win that left visiting Opel Skyliners needing a win in the last game next week in order to survive to the next round. With this victory, Pamesa climbs to 7-2 in Group B, still second place. Skyliners drop to fifth place at 3-6. Skyliners can only advance now by beating Roseto in Italy next week. Fabricio Oberto led five Pamesa scorers in double figures on Tuesday with 14 points. Victor Luengo added 13, Pedro Robles 12, Federico Kammerichs and Bernard Hopkins 11 apiece. For the guests, Andy Kwiatowsky nailed 15 points, Robert Garret tallied 14 and newcomer Dave Thomas helped with 13.
Skyliners broke the silence with a three by Pascal Roller to start the game, but that was all that the visitors would be able to say during the game. Pamesa overreacted with am 18-0 run, including 11 points by Victor Luengo, that broke the game wide open immediately. From that point, Pamesa increased its lead little by little, while the guests paid for their mistakes, as after 10 minutes, the score showed a 28-7, with also a good performance by Fabricio Oberto. The superiority of the hosts under the boards showed in the 12-5 figures, while in the second quarter, Valencia kept on doing its own thing. Luengo re-appeared for a 34-9. Andy Kwiatowsky was being the only player in the guests to try to struggle as he scored his 8th point for 38-18. But nothing would stop the hosts, as Luengo hit another three for 41-20, fought back by Roller hitting also from downtown, 41-23. At halftime, the lead was 20 points, 49-29.
The teams decreased their level for the second half, as the game was broken open. Pamesa even tried to enlarge its lead at 57-31. The Skyliners never surrendered though, and were back with a shy 0-8 run that wasn't enough to break the game on their favour, 68-47. After 30 minutes, the scoreboard displayed a 71-47. Coach Paco Olmos gave some minutes to the players that don't have them during the season for the last quarter, but things stayed the same. Pamesa managed to increase its lead to 30 points (84-54), while Pedro Robles and Asier Garcia did they best to score in double digits. The last minutes were only an agony for the Skyliners, who saw how Pamesa rallied to 92-64 in the last minute.
Tuesday, January 7, 2003
Eurocupbasketball.com