Eurocup. Insulting loss

When it seemed that Le Mans was out of the Last 16 race early, the French team shocked everyone on Tuesday night thanks to an 8-21 burst in the last period that allowed them to jump ahead and take the final win at BC Triumph, 72-87.
Triumph had dominated the game for three quarters and Le Mans was never really a threat until the guests rolled in the last period to jump ahead for good in an amazing 14-36 final quarter.
Le Mans is now 2-3 in Group B and can still qualify to the Last 16 next week, while BC Triumph drops to also 2-3 and will have to wait until next week, too. The 15-point win allows Le Mans also to overcome the first leg's loss to Triumph by 3 points, to hold an upped hand in case of a likely tie with the Russian team at the end of the regular season.
Brion Rush had 18 points, Konstantin Nesterov added 17, Pavel Sergeev 15 and Vadim Panin had 10.

BC Triumph Head Coach Stanislav Eremin:
- My congratulations to Le Mans, they played very smart and with patience. And we lacked the patience; we lacked concentration, dedication and unity, which we had in the first half. Also we had a big break without games, so it effected on our game tonight. This game helped me to look about- it was the first time when the team gave up in some moments at the ending of the game. Our opponents squeezed us in the frontline, so we had to attack from the backline. Our next game in Serbia will be decisive. It'll very hard.

05 january 2010