Caja Laboral dominates Besiktas to continue perfect Top 16 start
Caja Laboral led from start to finish, crushing Besiktas JK Istanbul 77-51 and extending its Euroleague winning streak to six games. Laboral improved to 3-0 to stay atop Group F, while Besiktas dropped to 0-3. The hosts stormed out of the gate, using 21 unanswered points to open up a 25-2 lead and cruised after that. On the way to victory, Laboral tied a Top 16 defensive record as it allowed only 7 points in the first 10 minutes of the game. Brad Oleson had a game-high 13 points in victory, while Tibor Pleiss, Maciej Lampe and Milko Bjelica each scored 12. Lampe, who received his bwin December MVP trophy from Euroleague Basketball president and CEO Jordi Bertomeu before the game, grabbed 10 rebounds and Tibor Pleiss had 9. For Beisktas, Daniel Ewing came off the bench for 12 points plus 6 rebounds and Curtis Jerrells scored 10.
First quarter: Caja Laboral opens with 25-2 charge
Milko Bjelica started the contest with a layup, and Lampe added one of his own before Damir Markota opened Besiktas’s account with a long jumper. However, Laboral went on a 21-0 run as Oleson first nailed a long jump shot, and then Oleson and Milko Bjelica hit back-to-back-to-back triples for 15-2. After a timeout, Lampe and Milko Bjelica scored inside using assists from Thomas Heurtel, and then Heurtel scored a layup himself. Despite the huge lead, the hosts kept hustling for every ball and every rebound, so Fernando San Emeterio made a layup before Lampe capped the run with a pair of free throws. Besiktas was held scoreless for almost seven minutes before Jerrells hit a triple and Randal Falker scored a layup, but Pleiss made a dunk to end the first quarter with the scoreboard flashing 27-7.
Second quarter: The visitors wake up
Besiktas finally came to life in the second quarter. After Fabien Causeur hit a jumper, Falker strung together a couple of layups, and Jerrells and Ewing each added a layup of his own to cut it to 32-17. Pleiss snapped a 2-8 run with a layup, before Nemanja Bjelica, Oleson and Andres Nocioni strung together 6 points for another 21-point advantage. Before the quarter’s end, Fikret Can Akin hit from downtown for the visitors, but Nemanja Bjelica did the same in the dying seconds of the quarter, giving Caja Laboral a 45-24 halftime lead.
Third quarter: Vitoria in cruise control keeps margin above 20
Oleson hit from behind the arc to open the third quarter and Milko Bjelica hit a short turnaround baseline jumper for 50-24. It took more than three minutes for Besiktas to score in the second half. Serhat Cetin took care of that with a triple. Lampe made a put-back for a 26-point margin, before Jerrells hit a three-pointer for 53-30. After dunks from Heurtel and Lampe on one side, and Cemal Nalga on the other, Cevher Ozer hit a three-pointer for Besiktas, but the hosts answered with 6 points in a row as a Heurtel layup made it 63-35 at the end of the third quarter.
Fourth quarter: The lead peaks at 33
With the lead being safe and Vitoria’s starters slowly calling it a night, it took the hosts a couple of minutes to start scoring in the fourth quarter. Pleiss made couple of put-backs, and Carlos Cabezas hit a triple that extended the lead to 70-37, the largest margin of the night. Falker split free throws and Patrick Christopher hit a pair to snap a 7-0 run, but Besiktas did not make a field goal in the fourth quarter until Ewing hit a three-pointer for 70-43 with less than four minutes to go. Before the end, Causeur made a basket-plus-foul for the hosts before Cevher Ozer and Ewing hit back-to-back triples for 73-51, but San Emeterio and Cabezas’s layups rounded out the scoring in Laboral’s sixth consecutive victory.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Euroleague.net