2002-03Regular SeasonRound 8
December 17, 2002 CET: 00:00
Local time: 00:00 HALA FMP

Say hello to the undisputed top team in the ULEB Cup with only two game left in the regular season: FMP Zeleznik of Yugoslavia. By beating mighty Pamesa Valencia of Spain 80-67 at home Tuesday, Zeleznik took exclusive hold at the top of Group B with record 7-1. Pamesa is down to 6-2 at the second place because two men had their show at Tuesday evening in Belgrade: Ognjen Askrabic, who scored 19 points, and Reggie Freeman, who added 16. More important than the point-scoring was their defensive contrubution to the Zeleznik's impresive win. Pamesa's top scorer was Bernard Hopkins with 14 points, followed by Fabricio Oberto with 13 and Jose Paraiso with 11. Both teams had already qualified for the second round before the game.

It took only minutes for Zeleznik to seize control with a 16-3 run to an 18-9 lead. In that first period, Askrabic scored three triples and Freeman added another. Zeleznik won that period 28-18, playing much better defense and adding a lot of fastbreaks. Pamesa returned to the game in the second period depending on offensive rebounds. Alessandro Abio and Oberto played 5 great minutes, resulting in a 4-17 run with which Pamesa tied the score at 38-38 before teams went for a half break.

The third period saw Pamesa try a zone defense, but Zeleznik managed to break it. Freeman, Ivan Zoroski and Veselin Petrovic scored triples, Askrabic shoted from outside and Goran Nikolic reigned under the boards. It all added up to a 21-4 run for Zeleznik that mean a lead of 17 points, 65-48, with 2 minutes left in the third quater. The final period was routine. Pamesa managed to come closer, 74-62, but that was as close as the co-leader of the Spanish League got to the exclusive leader of the Yugoslav League. The curiosity of the game is that Pamesa had much more rebounds than Zeleznik (31-18). Oberto, Tomasevic, Paraiso had 17 offensive rebounds, but the visitors shot only 49% from the field. Three-pointers Pamesa shot even worse, 2 of 12, while Zeleznik made 7 of 17. One more curiosity: players from the Zeleznik bench scored only 9 points, while Pamesa bench scored 40 points.

Tuesday, December 17, 2002
Eurocupbasketball.com
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Referees: DE KEYSER, ARMAND; LAMONICA, LUIGI; WARNICK, TODD
Attendance: 2200
By Quarter1234
FMP Belgrade28103012
Pamesa Valencia18201316
End of Quarter1234
FMP Belgrade28386880
Pamesa Valencia18385167
FMP Belgrade
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 POPOVIC, BOJAN 4:00   0/1                     1   -2
5 PETROVIC, VESELIN 19:00 12 2/3 1/3 5/6   1 1   1       4 4 10
6 ZOROSKI, IVAN 33:00 13 5/6 1/2     1 1 4 4 3   1 2 5 19
7 FREEMAN, REGGIE 26:00 16 3/5 2/3 4/4   2 2 3 2 2     3 6 21
8 BRATIC, SASA 20:00     0/1     1 1     1     3 1 -3
9 ILIC, MILE DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
10 PLISNIC, VANJA 5:00 2 1/2               1     2   -2
12 NIKOLIC, GORAN 28:00 11 3/5   5/7 4 3 7 3   1 1 1 2 4 18
13 BRYSON, JAMES 11:00 5 2/3   1/2           3     3 2 -1
14 ASKRABIC, OGNJEN 34:00 19 5/5 3/6 0/2   5 5 3 3 4 1   3 3 22
15 MARKOVIC, MIROSLAV 15:00 2 1/3 0/1     1 1         1 3 1 -3
16 POPOVIC, SLOBODAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Team                                
Totals 195:00 80 22/33 7/16 15/21 4 14 18 13 10 15 2 3 26 26 79
        66.7% 43.8% 71.4%
Head coach: PETROVIC, ACO
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
Pamesa Valencia
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 HOPKINS, BERNARD 29:00 14 5/15   4/5 6 3 9 1 1 1   1 1 4 15
6 MONTECCHIA, ALEJANDRO 22:00 6 1/3 0/5 4/4       3 3 1     5 4 3
7 ABBIO, ALESSANDRO 24:00 10 2/4 2/5   1 2 3 1 3 2     4   6
9 ROBLES, PEDRO 10:00   0/1               3 1   1 1 -3
10 KAMMERICHS, FEDERICO 15:00 6 1/1   4/8           2     1 4 3
11 RODILLA, JOSE IGNACIO 17:00   0/2           1   1     5 2 -5
12 PARAISO, JOSE ANTONIO 28:00 11 5/9 0/2 1/2 6 2 8     1 1   4 6 14
13 GARCIA, ASIER 1:00                              
14 OBERTO, FABRICIO 24:00 13 6/6   1/4 2 2 4 1 1 2 1 1 4 2 12
18 TOMASEVIC, DEJAN 25:00 7 3/6   1/2 2 5 7 1 1 4     1 2 9
Team                                
Totals 195:00 67 23/47 2/12 15/25 17 14 31 8 9 17 3 2 26 25 54
        48.9% 16.7% 60%
Head coach: OLMOS, FRANCISCO
This game is not yet played

Head Coaches

PETROVIC, ACO
FMP Belgrade
"We started the game very well, we played well in the first and third periods. We managed to crush their zone defense and they turned to individual defense, where we outplay them."
OLMOS, FRANCISCO
Pamesa Valencia
"We didn't play the way we want. We normally have a good rhythm during the 40 minutes, and tonight we only had it for 20 or 25 minutes. We tried the zone defense, but you can never used that during all the game, and when we changed to individual their big men destroyed us. We lost control at the start of the second half and we couldn't do anything."

Players

NIKOLIC, GORAN
FMP Belgrade
"This is a great success for us. We played great defense in the third period, we expected a hard game but Pamesa did not play well."
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