2005-06Regular SeasonRound 14
February 09, 2006 CET: 19:45
Local time: 19:45 FERNANDO BUESA ARENA
Tau Ceramica walked off with first place in Group A and the second-most victories in the entire Euroleague when it dispatched visiting Strasbourg by 80-54 at home in Vitoria, Spain on Thursday. Tau finished 11-3 to clinch a place in the first level of the upcoming Top 16 Draw, thereby avoiding the other group winners and best second-place team in the next round. Strasbourg finished its first Euroleague season with a 3-11 record after losing its last seven games. Kornel David led the winners with 22 points on 9-for-13 shooting, Travis Hansen added 19, Tiago Splitter 11 while Pablo Prigioni barely missed a triple-double with 10 points, 11 assists and 9 steals. Ondrej Starosta had 16 points for Strasbourg while Ricardo Greer and Crawford Palmer each added 10. Tau reached halftime with a 39-26 margin and boosted it to 61-36 to seal the win long before the final buzzer.

Even though Tau needed the win to secure first place in Group A, the hosts came out asleep, needing 2 minutes to hit their first shot from the floor. Strasbourg took advantage of that to take a small lead, 5-8, behind a good job inside by Ondrej Starosta, midway through the first period. Prigioni tied the game with a three-pointer, sparking a 7-0 run with fastbreak baskets by Scola and Splitter that shot Tau ahead 12-8. From there, the difference kept increasing as Strasbourg collapsed on offense, collecting only a couple of free throws by Giffa as the first quarter ended 21-10.

The second quarter started strangely, as Prigioni drew a flagrant foul on Stanley Jackson after only 2 seconds, with those free throws widening the gap to 23-10. David gave Tau a 15-point lead with a lauyp just before Crawford Palmer ended Strasbourg's drought with a jumpshot. Defenses prevailed over at both ends during the following minutes, and that helped Tau to keep a solid 14-point margin at 32-18 with 4 minutes to go in the quarter. Tau head coach Velimir Perasovic tried to increase the tempo with full-court pressure, but Strasbourg didn't find big trouble breaking it. Still, the score saw no big changes as Tau finished the half leading 39-26.

Hansen opened fire with a three-pointer right after the break to boost hosts' lead to 42-26. Even though Ricardo Greer answered with a fast break dunk and Scola committed his third foul, Tau proved unstoppable in the beginning of the quarter. Kornel David and Tiago Splitter took over to spark a 7-0 run that allowed TAU surpass the 20-point-lead mark for the first time at 49-28 after 23 minutes. Strasbourg was totally unable to fight against Tau's deffense, averaging less than a point per minute in the quarter. As such, the gap remained stable and Tau comfortably settled itself on a 20 point margin. Things got even worse for the guests after David and Splitter, again, pushed TAU to a 5-0 run to close the third period with hosts leading 61-36.

Prigioni and Sergi Vidal dunked off fastbreaks to raise Tau's lead to 65-38 after 31 minutes. Starosta took over for the guests and scored 7 points in a row to force a timeout midway through the quarter although Tau still led 65-45. Strasbourg kept rocking as Starosta got a basket-plus-free throw and Jeff Greer smashed the rim on a fastbreak to reduce the gap even more. Although the outcome was not in danger, Tau reacted quickly thanks to its best players tonight, David and Hansen, who returned a 20-points lead to the hosts, 72-52, with under 2 minutes left to assure first place in the group would not slip away.
Thursday, February 9, 2006
Natxo Mendaza, Vitoria
No results found.
Referees: JOVCIC, MILIVOJE; PILOIDIS, ANASTASIOS; OZOLS, ARNIS; ORTIZ DE ZÁRATE, JOSÉ MANUEL
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
Tau Ceramica Vitoria-Gasteiz21182219
Strasbourg10161018
End of Quarter1234
Tau Ceramica Vitoria-Gasteiz21396180
Strasbourg10263654
Tau Ceramica Vitoria-Gasteiz
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 SCOLA, LUIS 25:30 9 4/7   1/4 1 2 3 3 3 2 2   4 4 12
5 PRIGIONI, PABLO 29:45 10 2/2 1/2 3/4 2 1 3 11 9 3     2 2 28
6 HANSEN, TRAVIS 27:15 19 2/3 4/7 3/4 2 3 5 2         1 3 23
9 VIDAL, SERGI 18:15 5 1/2 1/2     3 3 2 1 3     2 1 5
10 UKIC, ROKO 15:00 2 0/2 0/3 2/2 2 1 3 1   2     1 1 -1
11 ERDOGAN, SERKAN 14:00 2 0/1 0/1 2/2                 2 2  
15 GRIMAU, JORDI DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
16 GARCIA, OSCAR DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
18 DAVID, KORNEL 30:15 22 9/14   4/5   4 4   3 2     3 3 21
21 SPLITTER, TIAGO 24:15 11 4/6   3/6 1 6 7 1 1 1 1   4 4 15
23 JACOBSEN, CASEY 15:45   0/4 0/1             1   1     -7
Team             1 1   1           2
Totals 200:00 80 22/41 6/16 18/27 8 21 29 20 18 14 3 1 19 20 98
        53.7% 37.5% 66.7%
Head coach: PERASOVIC, VELIMIR
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Strasbourg
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 WESSON, K'ZELL 20:30 4 2/6 0/1 0/2   2 2     4   2 2 2 -7
6 YAICI, BOUDJI 9:30   0/1 0/1     1 1 1 1 1     2   -2
7 GREER, RICARDO 30:30 10 5/11 0/1     3 3 2 3 3     1   7
8 GREER, JEFF 28:00 2 1/3 0/1   1 3 4 3 2 3     1 2 6
9 JEANNEAU, AYMERIC 27:30 4 1/2   2/2   1 1 2   3     3 3 3
12 McCORD, JOHN 15:00   0/2       3 3 1 2     1   1 4
14 PALMER, CRAWFORD 16:00 10 4/8   2/2   2 2 1 1 2 1   5 4 8
23 JACKSON, STANLEY 13:00   0/1 0/1   1 1 2   2 4     1   -3
31 GIFFA, SACHA 16:45 6 2/3   2/2   1 1     4     1 2 3
33 STAROSTA, ONDREJ 23:15 18 7/10   4/4 3 4 7     1     4 5 22
Team             4 4     1         3
Totals 200:00 54 22/47 0/5 10/12 5 25 30 10 11 26 1 3 20 19 44
        46.8% 0% 83.3%
Head coach: GIRARD, ERIC
This game is not yet played
There are no quotes yet.
No results found.