2006-07Regular SeasonRound 2
Tau Ceramica 77
Dynamo Moscow 61
November 01, 2006 CET: 00:00
Local time: 00:00 FERNANDO BUESA ARENA
Tau Ceramica showed why it is considered a Group A favorite by winning its first game of the season by score of 77-61 over visiting Dynamo Moscow on Wednesday in Vitoria, Spain. Tau bounced back from an opening-night loss to improve to 1-1 in Group A, the same record that Dynamo now has. Igor Rakocevic scored 23 points to lead the winners. The game was a back-and-forth affair for much of the first three quarters, as Tau pulled away and Dynamo stormed back, until Rakocevic and Zoran Planinic teamed up for a 9-2 run late in the third period. That gave the hosts a 60-49 lead that they did not allow to be threatened again. Fred House added 14 points and 4 steals for Tau, while Luis Scola came off the bench for 12 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists. Planinic finished with 12 points and 8 assists. Antonis Fotsis led Dynamo with 17 points and Bojan Popovic added 10. Dynamo swingman Travis Hansen, who spent the last two seasons with Tau, scored 8 points.
Hansen quickly forgot the two seasons he spent in Vitoria as he opened fire for the guests with a left-handed layup to put Dynamo on the board. Despite the quick score, both teams had a slow start. Midway through the period, the hosts had two straight steals that led to fast-break points from Mirza Teletovic and Scola as Tau took an 8-4 lead lead. Scola, who started on the bench but came on to replace foul-plagued Kaya Peker, continued to have an impact inside. Dynamo struggled to find the basket, with the only points coming from the free-throw line. Back-to-back baskets by House and a fastbreak layup by Rakocevic saw the hosts' lead grow to 19-10. Dynamo coach Dusan Ivkovic called timeout, but the break didn't have much of an impact on the game. A strange and lucky basket scored by Tau's Serkan Erdogan into wrong hoop ended the quarter with Tau ahead 22-15.
Lazaros Papadopoulos and Eddie Gill reduced the gap as the second quarter started, while Juri Vasilyev tied the game from the three-point line on the next play. TAU needed only a few seconds to recover the lead on a Scola layup, but Dyanamo was back. Two missed free throws by Peker opened a three-minute scoreless period, mostly due to poor shot selection. Sergey Monya ended the drought from the free-throw line, tying the score at 26-26. Dynamo switched to zone defense as Fotsis hit twice – including one from downtown – to cap a 4-16 run and give the visitors a 5-point edge. Tau coach Velimir Perasovic called timeout and Tau responded through three-pointers from Rakocevic and Diego Fajardo, to put Tau back on top, 30-29. The teams exchanged baskets from that point, until Hansen's acrobatic layup closed the scoring with Tau up 39-37 at halftime.
The beginning of the third quarter was a one-man show for each side. Rakocevic made a jumper and a triple from the corner, while Popovic earned a basket-plus-free throw and followed it with a pull-up jumper to make it 44-42. The game turned into a more physical battle at that point, which got the crowd going as well. A shot from the arc by Pablo Prigioni gave Tau three-point lead, but the scoring stalled again for a few minutes. The hosts came through with a pair of fastbreak baskets for a 51-42 lead midway through the third period. Fotsis came to Dynamo's rescue from the free-throw line, as the visitors switched again to a zone defense in an attempt to slow Tau down, like it did before intermission. The move worked, as the hosts went scoreless for 3 minutes, allowing Dynamo to rally to within 51-47. But Rakocevic and Planinic awoke at that point and took Tau on a 9-2 run, that extended the lead to 60-49 at the end of the third period.
The defenses took the upper hand at the beginning of the fourth quarter, which saw only Peker make a basket in the first 3 minutes. Although Dynamo tried to put Tau in trouble again by switching defenses, its main problem was shooting. As a result, the hosts remained comfortably ahead at 64-51 midway through the period. Dynamo seemed ready to surge after a Fotsis three-pointer followed by a Popovic jumper closed the gap to 66-56. However, that run ended quickly, as House and Planinic scored on a dunk and a three-pointer, respectively, to raise the difference to 14 points. A Teletovic bomb in the last minute sealed the win for the hosts.
Referees: LAMONICA, LUIGI; PILIPAUSKAS, KESTUTIS; CEREBUCH, GUERRINO
Tau Ceramica 22 17 21 17
Dynamo Moscow 15 22 12 12
4 SCOLA, LUIS 29:15 12 5/8 2/4 2 6 8 5 3 4 4 17
5 PRIGIONI, PABLO 13:15 3 1/4 1 1 1 3 1 -2
7 CILLA, JESUS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
8 RAKOCEVIC, IGOR 34:30 23 7/8 2/6 3/3 1 1 2 1 1 2 4 21
9 VIDAL, SERGI DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
10 PLANINIC, ZORAN 30:30 12 2/3 1/3 5/5 2 2 8 1 1 3 5 21
11 ERDOGAN, SERKAN 5:30 0/2 0/1 1 1 1 -2
12 TELETOVIC, MIRZA 23:30 5 1/4 1/4 2 2 4 2 4 1 3 3 8
13 FAJARDO, DIEGO 10:45 6 1/2 1/2 1/2 2 1 3 4 2 4
14 PEKER, KAYA 16:30 2 1/2 0/4 1 1 1 1 4 2 -4
21 SPLITTER, TIAGO DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
32 HOUSE, FRED 36:15 14 7/7 0/3 2 1 3 4 1 2 15
Head coach: PERASOVIC, VELIMIR
4 POPOVIC, BOJAN 26:15 10 3/8 0/1 4/4 2 2 2 2 4 6 12
5 IVANOV, ANDREI 2:15 0/1 1 -2
6 HANSEN, TRAVIS 31:30 8 2/7 0/2 4/4 2 2 2 5 4 4
8 GILL, EDDIE 15:00 2 1/3 2 2 2 2 2
10 BYKOV, SERGEY 5:30 0/1 1 1 1
11 MONIA, SERGEY 15:30 7 1/5 1/3 2/2 3 4 7 2 1 7
12 PAPADOPOULOS, LAZAROS 35:45 5 2/5 1/2 2 6 8 1 1 6 1 2 7 11
13 TRUSHKIN, ANDREI DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
14 DOMANI, DMITRY 25:30 5 1/3 0/1 3/4 1 1 2 2 1 3 3
15 FOTSIS, ANTONIS 31:45 17 3/7 2/3 5/6 3 2 5 2 1 3 16
17 VASILYEV, YURI 11:00 7 1/2 1/1 2/2 1 1 1 1 3 1 5
Totals 200:00 61 14/40 4/13 21/24 12 17 29 8 4 18 2 0 21 25 52
Head coach: IVKOVIC, DUSAN
PERASOVIC, VELIMIR
"We all knew that Dynamo is a very good team, a tough one. They play very easy basketball, because they count on players that can make their own shots. They are physically strong and we struggled with that a lot during the first two quarters. We needed too much time to feel comfortable on the court. When we made changes, they didn't work well because our reserves didn't take to the court with enough intensity. That's why we lost our advantage so quickly when we took some leads. We did a nice job on defense in the second half, especially our big men against Papadopoulos and Fred House on Hansen."
IVKOVIC, DUSAN
"In my opinion, Tau absolutely deserved the win tonight. They were the best team on court. It was the first game on the road for us and I think that we controlled the game for the first half. We played good basketball, with good balance. I think that my players were under pressure in the second half. It was not only because of Tau's defense, because they are a very good offensive team, better than defensively, but our shot selection was very bad. Our key players were very well guarded, so we struggled to score in the second half. We have to learn a lot of this game. It's only the second round and there is a lot of time for improving."
FAJARDO, DIEGO
"I felt good in my comeback. I think my injury is forgotten already. The game was very intense, but we managed to lead the score for almost the whole 40 minutes. Tonight's game was the kind of game where you can't think of saving energy, you must leave everything on the court and fortunately it worked fine for us tonight. We did a good job against Papadopoulos. Sometimes it's the frontcourt that needs to score, and sometimes it's the backcourt. We needed to win this game in order to build our confidence."
HANSEN, TRAVIS
"It was a very tough game, like all Euroleague games. This competition is the best one outside of the NBA and that demands from you everything in every game. I think we did a good job in the first half, but they managed to prevent us from playing our game in the second and that was the key. We must learn from these mistakes in order to improve in the next game. I feel pretty good here, because the people here are fantastic."
REGULAR SEASON TOP 16 PLAYOFFS FINAL FOUR
Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 6 Round 7 Round 8 Round 9 Round 10 Round 11 Round 12 Round 13 Round 14
November 1 00:00 CET LIVE FINAL
Climamio Bologna 86
Olympiacos 93
RheinEnergie 68
Efes Pilsen 82
Prokom Trefl Sopot 69
Le Mans 67
Union Olimpija 83
Lottomatica Roma 72
Unicaja 66
DKV Joventut 68
Panathinaikos 86
Cibona 69
Partizan 103
Maccabi Elite 91
CSKA Moscow 83
Aris TT Bank 68
Fenerbahce Ulker 66
Pau-Orthez 68
Winterthur FC Barcelona 82
Benetton Basket 69
Zalgiris 83
Eldo Napoli 65