Lauretana Biella made an outstanding Eurocup debut by edging CEZ Nymburk 78-77 at Biella Forum on Tuesday in Group H. Biella now shares the top spot in the group with Brose Baskets Bamberg, a team it will meet next week in Germany. Pietro Aradori led the way with 18 points, including a pair of clutch free throws with 18 seconds remaining to ice the win. Joe Smith added 16 and Massino Chessa and Parvis Pasco had 10 apiece for the winners. Ian Hanavan, Petr Benda and Michal Kremen scored 11 each and Pavel Prunprla and Ladislav Sokolovsky added 10 apiece for the Czech champs, who will seek their first win when they host BK Ventspils next week.

The game started balanced with the two teams exchanging leads in the first six minutes before the hosts’ well balanced efforts led to a 21-14 margin at the end of the first quarter. Carl Ona Embo extended the cushion to double figures, 27-17, with a reverse layup, but Phil Ricci went one on one down low to slam the ball and cut the deficit to 34-31. A 9-0 run for Lauretana Biella highlighted by 5 points from Chessa gave the hosts a 43-31 advantage at halftime.

Biella remained on fire and went up to 47-31 before Benda scored 6 in row to get his team going. Kremen capped a 13-0 Nymburk run with a three-point-play to get all the way back in the game at 47-44 at the midway point of the third quarter. The hosts finally got some points on the board, but the trio of Benda, Necas and Hanavan continued to attack. Achara scored from the foul line for Lauretana to established a 55-50 advantage for the hosts after 30 minutes. Smith and Mike Lenzly exchanged triples early in the last quarter before Sokolovsky tied the score from downtown, 58-58. Pasco blocked a Sokolovsky layup to launch Aradori in the open court and he finished with a three-pointer to push his side ahead 63-58. Hanavan made 2 free throws bring Nymburk within a single point, 66-65. Ona Embo hit a three to make it 69-65 and later assisted Pasco for 2 easy points and a 71-67 margin. Four consecutive points by Pumprla kept the motivation high for Nymburk, which had closed to 74-71 with 90 seconds on the game clock. Two free throws nailed by Aradori with 18 seconds to go gave Biella a 78-74 margin to the hosts and a final three-pointer by Sokolovsky was not enough for the guests to send the game to an the extra session.