Ostend says goodbye with a road win

Two proud teams previously eliminated from advancing in the Eurocup gave almost 3,000 fans in Poland their money's worth as Telenet Ostend topped host Stelmet Zielona Gora 80-84 in the farewell Last 32 Group O game for both on Wednesday. Ostend finished tied for second place with a 3-3 record, but had lost both of its games to the team it was tied with, Valencia Basket. Zielona Gora ended the group with a 1-5 record. Ryan Thompson's three-pointer put Ostend ahead for good at 72-73 and Dusan Djordjevic made sure of the victory with perfect free throw shooting down the stretch. Djordjevic led the winners with 15 points, while Gregory Echenique and Pierre Gillet chipped in 13 each, Thomspon and Wes Wilkinson 11. For Zielona Gora, Lukasz Koszarek had 17 points, Vlaidmir Dragicevic 16 and Craig Brackins 14.

Ostend made its intentions knows by jumping ahead 2-7 early on baskets by Fillet and a triple by Thompson. Gillet was back with a triple of his own at 7-15, and even though Zielona Gora rallied with a 12-5 run, the visitors still led 21-24 after one quarter. The hosts kept rallying until back-to-back threes by Marcin Sroka and Brackins started a series of second-quarter leads, but a buzzer-beater by Djordjevic took the scoreboard back for Ostend, 45-46, at halftime. Back and forth they went during the third quarter, with the key stretch being Ostend's 0-10 run for a 56-61 lead, although that had dwindled to 60-61 after 30 minutes. It stayed close until Thompson's shot and 5 points that followed by Wilkinson pushed the guests far enough in front, 72-78, that they held on to leave the competition on a winning note.