Cyprus-Forum.com

[Sotos]

Lemesos Stay Unbeaten Against Winless Kalev

EKA AEL Lemesos held off a determined BC Kalev in Estonia on Tuesday to snatch their fourth successive win in the EuroCup and secure their passage into the next phase of the competition.

The Tallinn team, having lost their opening three games, needed to win to keep their hopes of progressing from Group E alive but Lemesos won 71-65.

Fenerbache also won PAOK in Greece. So AEL and Fenerbache pass to the next round.

Congratulations to our team!!

[Sotos]

Another victory for AEL. This time AEL won PAOK in Limassol 84-67.

EKA AEL Lemesos led PAOK Thessaloniki by just two points going into the
fourth quarter but blew the game wide open for an 84-67 triumph - their
fifth straight in the EuroCup.

The Cypriot team erupted for 27 points in the final quarter while limiting
PAOK to just 12.

[Alexis]

These guys sound pretty good. How far from the final are they?

[Sotos]

EuroCup is the top competition of FIBA Europe. There are now 8 groups with 4 teams each. So that is 32 teams. AEL has now managed to qualify in the best 16 which was the aim. Winning teams like PAOK and Fenerbache and qualifying is big success for our team. The final is not an aim though.

[Alexis]

Ok, fair play to them, getting to the last 16 is very impressive.
Surely though, winning as unanimously as they did in their group gives them a fair chance in the next couple of rounds? Unless the group they were in had particularly weak opposition that is.

[Sotos]

The group was a strong one with PAOK and Fenerbache in it. I believe Fenerbache was in the semi finals last year. But there a couple Russian teams in other groups that are going to be very hard to beat.

[Sotos]

First deafeat for AEL. But they still qualify for the next round

Kaspars Kambala erupted for 32 points and pulled down 11 rebounds as Fenerbahce defeated previously unbeaten EKA AEL Lemesos to clinch first place in Group E of the EuroCup.

Lemesos, Cyprus' lone representatives in the competition, had won the first meeting between the two sides by just two points and could have suffered a one-point defeat and still finished top of the group, but they lost in Istanbul 86-81.

Both sides advance to Round II.

Fener led 47-44 at half-time and then scored the first six points of the third quarter with baskets from Hakan Demirel, Kambala - who had poured in 18 in the first half - and Cory Violette for a nine-point advantage.

Because the margin of victory was crucial in this game, Lemesos never gave up.

When Michael McDonald split two free throws with a minute and 27 seconds to play, they trailed 81-78.

Both sides made for a frantic finish.

After Violette made the first of two free throws at the other end but missed the second, Kambala grabbed the offensive rebound.

Violette would end up being fouled again and this time made both for an 84-78 lead with 1:04 to play.

Frankie King made one of two from the line, and after a Fener turnover, he went up and scored in close to again shave the deficit to three (84-81) with 45 seconds to play.

Fenerbahce fans then watched in frustrated as Violette turned the ball over to give Lemesos an opportunity to tie with a three-pointer.

After a time-out, though, King lost it out of bounds and Lemesos had to foul Erdal Bibo to stop the clock with 11 seconds left.

Bibo made two free throws for a five-point advantage.

Lemesos needed to hit a three-pointer to make the scores level on aggregate but he turned it over for a fourth time in the game as Fener held on for the 86-81 win.