A battle for their first victory of the Eurocup season saw two Group H teams endure three lead changes in the final 17 seconds before Ronald Moore's game-winner lifted PGE Turow to a thrilling 67-66 triumph over Dexia Mons-Hainaut of Belgium on Tuesday in Zgorzelec, Poland. Turow will share second place in Group H with a 1-1 record, while Mons still searched for a first victory that the visitors surely felt they had on Tuesday. A.J. Slaughter hit what had seemed like the winning shot with 6 seconds on the clock to give Mons the lead, but Moore needed just half that time to go the other way and make his first points the decisive ones. Daniel Kickert led the winners with 18 points while David Jackson and John Edwards added 11 each. Turow's decisive 18-10 advantage in assists featured 5 each from Giedrius Gustas and Konrad Wysocki. Ronell Taylor led four Mons scorers in double figures with 14 points. Slaughter followed with 12, Ahmad Nivins and Sean Singletary 10 each for the visitors
Jackson from downtown and Edwards with 3 points the hard way sent Turow ahead 8-2 early. The same duo soon scored back-to-back two-pointers to extend the difference to 12-4. Turow's defense had Mons confused, while the hosts were dishing assists left and right. A triple by Kickert and layup by Konrad Wysocki, both assisted by Giedrius Gustas, upped the lead to a high of 13 points before Slaughter and Sean Singletary sparked an end-of-quarter response by Mons that cut the difference to single digits, 25-16. After Kickert gave Turow another double-digit advantage to start the second quarter, the Mons response resumed with Taylor and Warren Carter filling a 0-11 game-tying run split in the middle by a triple from Singletary. Their team's next shot, a triple by Justin Cage, meant its first lead all game, 33-34. Artur Mielczarek shot Turow back in front from long range, however, to let the hosts go back in front, 40-37, at halftime.
Again after the break, Mons struck back as Ahmad Nivins joined Slaughter and Taylor on 2-10 blast off that put the guests up 42-47. Cage joined Singletary in building the difference for Mons, whose defense did the rest, holding Turow to just 8 points in the third quarter. When Slaughter put the punctuation on that run with a three-point basket-plus-free throw, the visitors had a 48-56 advantage after 30 minutes. Aaron Cel came off the Turow bench to revive the hosts with a pair of quick baskets to start the fourth quarter. Michal Jankowski got Turow as close as 54-56 before Nivins and Taylor responded with a 0-6 run for Mons, which led 54-62 with 5:30 to play. Kickert re-ignited Turow with a big triple, then after 2 scoreless minutes returned with a layup to suddenly make it 59-62. Jackson and Cel kept Turow within 63-64 before a long lull that stretched almost until the finish. Then, with 17 seconds left, fireworks. Kickert scored on a drive that seized a new lead for Turow, 65-64. After a timeout, Mons went to Slaughter, whose own go-ahead basket fell with 6 seconds remaining. But that was plenty time for Moore, scoreless until then, to make his first shot all night before the buzzer sounded and let a first victory this Eurocup season stay home in Zgorzelec, Poland.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Eurocupbasketball.com