Pamesa Valencia remains undefeated atop the Group B of the ULEB Cup after winning at Ballsporthalle in Frankfurt against Skyliners, 63-72. The visitors were ahead for all 40 minutes and showed all their experience in the last minutes to manage the advantage. The scoring leader for Pamesa was Fabricio Oberto, who had 20 points and 8 rebounds, while Nacho Rodilla netted 15. For Skyliners, whose record fell to 1-3, four players scored in double figure, center Mario Kasun with 20 points, Robert Garrett with 13, Patrick Roller with 12 and Travis Conlan with 10.
The game started with Pamesa taking an early 6-1 lead with 6 points scored by Oberto. After 6 minutes the score was 6-11 and Oberto had already 10 points, while Conlan had 5 for Skyliners. The guests enlarged their advantage to 11-16 at the ned of the first period. The second started with Pamesa and Oberto still on fire, 15 points for him and 15-21 after 13 minutes. Skyliners could not contain arguably the top player in the World Championships final two months earlier. The second period followed with guests mantaining slim advanatges and Obert increasing his point total to 17. But now Patrick Roller was on fire for Skyliners with his three-pointers and brought his team back to 28-30. Nacho Rodilla now stepped up for Pamesa to secure a 28-36 advantage at the break. Just two players were on double digits at the break, Oberto with 17 and Roller with 10.
After the break, Pamesa made a run to go up 43-55 with Rodilla and Pedro Robles as the main protagonists. But now Kasun started using his size in the paint for Frankfurt, whcih rode him back to within 48-55 after 30 minutes. The defenses were tougher, the game was on fire and in the first 3 minutes of the last quarter, nobody scored any buckets. Pamesa thus mantained a good advantage, with a top gap of 60-72 with 90 seconds to go, and with their experience and skills managed the game through to their fourth straight victory.
Wednesday, November 6, 2002
Eurocupbasketball.com