Gran Canaria continues its perfect run

Herbalife Gran Canaria Las Palmas kept its unbeaten record intact with 81-90 road win over the last place Artland Dragons Quakenbrueck. The visitors previously clinched the first place in the group, and this win improved Gran Canaria to 9-0, while previously eliminated Dragons dropped to 1-8 in the last place of Group B. DaJuan Summers scored 13 points in 17 minutes in victory, Albert Oliver had 12 points and 7 assists, while Levon Kendall also scored 12. Brad Newley netted 11, and Kyle Kuric 10 points for Gran Canaria. Brandon Thomas scored 19 points, shooting 4 of 6 behind the arc, Andreas Seiferth had 12 points, 6 boards and 5 assists, and Antonio Graves also scored 12. Chad Toppers netted 11 in defeat.

Antonio Graves and Brandon Thomas hit triples for Artland’s 10-3 lead, but Gran Canaria quickly caught up through Ian O’Leary and triples from Kyle Kuric, Albert Oliver and Txemi Urtasun made it 14-18. Thomas and Chad Topert hit threes for the hosts, but Urtasun made it 22-25 after the first quarter, and Gran Canaria held the slim lead in the second with baskets from Levon Kendall, Olivar, Oriol Pauli and Brad Newley, before a triple from Joaquin Portugues made it 33-40. However, Dennis Horner and Anthony King got the hosts going, Andreas Seiferth contributed with back-to-back baskets, and David Holston hit a triple to cap a 13-2 run, and help the Dragons to 46-44 halftime lead.

Gran Canaria opened the third quarter with back-to-back threes from Newley and DaJuan Summers, but Thomas scored 6 points on the other end, and Graves nailed a three-pointer for the Dragons to regain the lead, 57-56. Teams went on trading leads going into the fourth quarter, until Urtasun and Kuric hit triples to give the visitors 72-77 with under 4 minutes left in the game. After Seiferth and Tavares traded close range baskets, Thomas hit from long range and 77-79, but Oliver hit a triple for 78-84 with 49 seconds left, sealing the deal.