2002-03Regular SeasonRound 8
December 17, 2002 CET: 00:00
Local time: 00:00 MOLOT SPORT

Gravelines of France walked tall through the front door into the next round of the ULEB Cup by registering a huge 87-94 road win on Tuesday at Ural Great, becoming the first Group A visitor this season to survive in Perm. Gravelines took the game by the throat and led almost throughout, but needed to react late to a rally that left Ural leading by a point with 3 minutes left. As happened all game, outside-inside duo of Frankie King and Cedric Miller went to work, scoring 11 points in a 4-13 run to put the game away for Gravelines. King finished with 23 points, including 14-for-15 free throw shooting, while Miller added 21 points, Danny Strong 19 and Geoff Lear 17 for the winners. It was all they could do to overcome a 37-point blowout by Ural center Chris Anstey. Eddie Shannon added 10 and Raimons Vaikulis 11 for Ural, whose record fell to 4-5. Gravelines is now 7-2 and would have a chance to clinch first place by winning at home against last-place Jabones Pardo Fuenlabrada next week.

Gravelines took an early 4-8 lead thanks to Lear and stayed ahead for several minutes, taking advantage of Ural Great's bad shooting percentage (1 for 7, 14%) to start. Despite the missed shots, the hosts went to work on their intensity and squeezed out extra possessions until, with points by Shannon and forward Stefan Nadjfeji, taking a lead of 15-12. It didn't last long. Gravelines responded with a 3-10 run as Miller got hot from downtown distance. King did the rest, helping secure a 24-22 edge after one quarter. Then early in the second, the Gravelines point guard coming up with a four-point play - a three-pointer plus foul shot - that was a heavy blow to Ural's confidence. King's point total was up to 12 already and the Gravelines lead was at 28-36. Forward Nikolai Khryapa stepped in and scored 5 points that allowed Ural Great to stay in the game at 33-36. Then Anstey, who drew 5 fouls in the first half, started his engine for an important inside contribution that helped Ural stay in tough with the guests. Indeed, Gravelines still led at the half, but Ural had calmed the waters by drawing within 2 points at 42-44.

Shannon blasted out of the locker room after halftime to score 5 points in a row, giving Ural Great a minimum lead of 51-50 to start the third quarter. But now it was King's turn again. He relished his duel with Shannon and led Gravelines on a 2-10 run to a seven-point lead, 53-60, after 28 minutes. After an Ural timeout, Gravelines managed to keep the lead through the end of 30 minutes, 62-67. But Ural saved its best for the last quarter, and who else but Anstey, the center, stepped up to fire in 3 consecutive three-pointers to vault the hosts to a new lead, 75-74, with 3 minutes left to play. Miller answered with 4 straight points of his own to give back a 75-78 edge to Gravelines. And though Raimonds Vaikulis scored important jumpers to get Ural close at 79-80, Miller was back with a huge three-pointer to give the visitors breathing room at 79-83. Khryapa suffered a key turnover with little more than a minute to play, and appropriately enough, 4 points between King and Miller ended the suspense as the lead hit 79-87. Ural got as close again as 84-89, but Lear's three-point play in the final minute iced the result and assured a place for Gravelines in the next round of the ULEB Cup.

Tuesday, December 17, 2002
Eurocupbasketball.com
No results found.
Referees: SUDEK, PETR; GORSHKOV, ALEXANDER; BRAATHEN, BJORN INGE
Attendance: 6500
By Quarter1234
Ural Great Perm22221825
BCM Gravelines24222127
End of Quarter1234
Ural Great Perm22446287
BCM Gravelines24466794
Ural Great Perm
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 VAIKULIS, RAIMONDS 36:00 11 5/8 0/1 1/2   2 2 4 2       3 3 14
5 KUBRAKOV, VALENTIN 39:00   0/2 0/5   1 5 6   1 4 1   5 1 -7
7 KHRYAPA, NIKOLAI 20:00 8 2/3 1/2 1/2 3 5 8 2   1     4 1 11
8 LAVRINOVIC, KSISTOF DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
9 NADJFEJI, STEVAN 11:00 8 2/2 0/1 4/4 1 1 2 1   2   1 3 3 7
10 KADZIULIS, GINTARAS 2:00     0/1   1   1                
11 MELESHKIN, ALEXANDER DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
12 ANSTEY, CHRIS 38:00 37 7/13 4/7 11/16 1 6 7     2 2   4 12 38
14 SHANNON, EDDIE 38:00 19 4/7 1/2 8/9   3 3 2 2 4     5 6 18
15 MANIKHIN, ALEKSANDER DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
18 MUURSEPP, MARTIN 16:00 4 1/2 0/3 2/2   4 4   1     1 5 2 1
20 BELOV, ALEKSANDR DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Team                                
Totals 200:00 87 21/37 6/22 27/35 7 26 33 9 6 13 3 2 29 28 82
        56.8% 27.3% 77.1%
Head coach: BELOV, SERGEY
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
BCM Gravelines
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 MILLER, CEDRIC 30:00 21 4/7 4/6 1/1 1 6 7 1 1       2 1 24
5 BOUZIANE, ALI 24:00 7 2/3 0/1 3/4           4     4 2 -2
6 SZASZCZAK, GUILLAUME DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
7 PERICA, IGOR 8:00 5 2/2   1/1         1 3 1   4 2 2
8 STRONG, DANNY 36:00 19 6/11 1/3 4/6   8 8 2 4 1 1 1 1 6 28
9 LEAR, GEOFFREY 32:00 17 7/12   3/4 1 1 2 2       1 3 8 19
10 COURCIER, FABRICE DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
11 GEORGET, BENOIT 17:00           2 2 1         3    
12 WINDLESS, TONY 7:00           2 2   1       3 1 1
14 KING, FRANKIE 36:00 23 0/2 3/8 14/15 2 2 4 2 2 4   1 5 9 22
15 KORTYTEK, KORDIAN 10:00 2 1/2     1 3 4     2     3    
Team                                
Totals 200:00 94 22/39 8/18 26/31 5 24 29 8 9 14 2 3 28 29 94
        56.4% 44.4% 83.9%
Head coach: MONSCHAU, JEAN-LUC
This game is not yet played

Head Coaches

BELOV, SERGEY
Ural Great Perm
"Looking at the results of the games played up to this point, I think that Gravelines is the best organized team in our group. They perfectly used all their chances today. Unfortunately, our players still remember the triumphal victory we had on Saturday in the national championship over Unics Kazan. That might probably served us bad today because they thought all their shots would get right into the basket as they did in our last game. It was only Anstey who could concentrate in the second half, all the others were just vague shadows of themselves."
MONSCHAU, JEAN-LUC
BCM Gravelines
"For us this victory is very important, first for the advancing to the next round and second for keeping the first place in our group. I think today our team performed at its best. We knew it was hard to win in Perm. On its own court before, Ural Great had defeated its opponents by great margins. From the very beginning, we played with great concentration and later we took the lead and never let it go. I am proud of my players, who could beat the team of such a great coach as Sergey Belov."

Players

VAIKULIS, RAIMONDS
Ural Great Perm
"We could do nothing against their leaders and played bad in defense. We made too many mistakes in offense and did not shoot well. Gravelines is a very good team. Nothing is over for us with this loss. I think we still can fight for the second place in the group."
GEORGET, BENOIT
BCM Gravelines
"Today we managed to control the game from its very beginning up to the end. We played well both in defense and offense. I am very glad we could win in Perm."
No results found.