Bilbao wins at home to stay atop Group A

Dominion Bilbao Basket registered it first home win of the season, and made a significant step towards a place in the Last 32 with a comfortable 95-80 win over the visiting Telekom Baskets Bonn on Wednesday. Win improved Bilbao to 5-2 in a share of the first place in Group A, while Bonn dropped its third straight decision, and with 2-5 records sits in the last place. Bilbao pulled away to a double-digit margin in the second quarter, and never looked back as Bonn did not get closer than 8 at any point of the second half. Clevin Hannah paced the hosts with 23 points, Alex Ruoff scored 15, Alex Suarez netted 14 on 4-for-5 from downtown, while Shawn James collected 11 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals in victory. Bonn had six scorers in double figures. Eugene Lawrence led the visitors with 16 points and 10 assists, Rotnei Clarke had 12 points, while Dirk Madrich, Jimmy McKinney, Tadas Klimavicius and Aaron White each scored 10 in defeat.

White, Madrich and a triple from McKinney opened 5-11 lead to start the game, but a pair of triples from Suarez helped Bilbao erase it, and go up 15-14. Team traded leads until the end of first quarter when Raul Lopez made it 19-17, then James, Ruoff and Dejan Todorovic extended it to 24-17 at the start of the second. Clarke hit two and Michal Chylinski one three-pointer to keep Bonn close, 28-26, but Ruoff scored couple baskets to spark an 8-0 run that opened a 10-point margin, 36-26. Before halftime, White and Lawrence each scored 4 points for the visitors, but Hannah knocked down couple triples for Bilbao, giving it 46-34 lead at the break.

Madrich had a three-point play to open the second half, but triples from Dairis Bertans and Suarez made it 52-39. Bonn cut the deficit, first through baskets from Chylinski and Andrej Mangold, then a triple from Clarke helped made it 56-48 as Bilbao was held without a field goal for 5 minutes before James snapped the drought. Hannah and Clarke traded threes, and after a basket from Klimavicius, a pair of buckets by Ruoff helped Bilbao to 69-57 lead at the end of third quarter. Rouff extended the margin to 14 points at the start of the fourth, as Bilbao remained in control. Lawrence and McKinney hit back-to-back from downtown, but Tobias Borg had a basket-plus-foul to keep Bilbao’s lead in double figures. Lawrence hit again from long range, but Giorgos Bogris matched it with a three-point play, 79-69 midway through the fourth. Suarez added a triple for Bilbao, and Hannah scored to push his personal tally to 20 points while helping the lead reach 86-71. Before game’s end, Madrich hit from long range for Bonn, but Hannah nailed his fourth triple for Bilbao, icing the game and helping extend the margin to 93-76, the largest of the night.