2007-12-14 Oh, sweet revenge
If there is a Fair Play on one side, then BK Ventspils in on the other side. TU/Rock had asked to move the game into the future as the airport officials' strike in Greece didn't let the team home until today. Ventspils blocked the request and was punished for that. Rock led the game from start to finish and won 90:88 after Brian Cusworth took an offensive rebound and made the winning basket with 3 seconds left and Akinlolu Akingbala missed both free throws on last second.
Rock moved past Ventspils in SEB BBL standings to reach 6th place with 4 wins and 7 losses. Ventspils has 3 wins and 7 losses, despite having played 7 games at home.
Brian Cusworth ended the game with 24 points, 8 of them in last quarter. Tanel Tein added 20 points and Gert Kullamae 18, including a crucial three-pointer with 34 seconds left to play.
1st quarter ended 28:25 as both teams were on fire. Rock made 10/14 from the field, Ventspils 9/14.
Three-pointers from Talts, Cusworth (only his third this season) and Tein took Rock ahead 14:6 and 19:9.
Helmanis had 10 points fir the guests in first.
In 2nd, Cusworth dunked for his 12th point. Since then, both teams went dry for 3 minutes. Ventspils made 4 turnovers during this period, Rock missed 6 shots in a row. Finally, Cusworth broke the deadlock and made it 36:31. It was Helmanis alone who had Ventspils in the same league as the hosts. His third three-pointer narrowed the gap to 4, again, 38:34. After guests' another turnover Tein made it 45:36 to end the first half.
3rd began with a layup from Tein to make the gap double-digit, already. Both Doronin and Akinbala made their 4th foul. Two turnovers in a row helped guests to make a 7:0 run and narrow the gap to four, only - 47:43. An offensive rebound and a tap-in by Skirmants and a three-ponter from Gabrans brought the guests within one point, 53:52. Love evened the score from free throws. Then, Kullamae scored 5 points in a row, Tein added a three-pointer but Love answered with the same. 62:59 with a quarter to play.
Rock was already behind in rebounding 17:22 (15:13 after 2nd quarter), but guests had made 6 more turnovers - 7:13.
Another three-point play from Kullamae opened the last quarter. Guests moved back to 65:62 but Tsintsadze nailed a triple and Kullamae added another one for 72:62.
A three-pointer from Vitols started Ventspils' come-back. They made it 74:70 but Cusworth, scoreless for whole 3rd quarter, earned free throws on three consecutive attacks and made all 6 shots to hold the 6-point lead. Baxter scored with a foul and with 2:10 left his three-pointer made it 84:82. Gabrans added free throws and it was even again, 84:84.
Tein could make only one free throw and Vitols took the guests ahead for the second time in the game (first time it was for 19 seconds in 1st quarter - 0:2). This time they led for 23 seconds. Then, with backs against the wall, it was the grey-headed local idol Kullamae who took the leading role to his sholders. He nailed a three-pointer with 34 seconds left to take the lead 88:86.
Gabrans added with a quick basket, 88:88 and Kullamae missed but it was Cusworth who saved the day for the hosts. He took an offensive rebound, missed (!) and took the ball once again to score this time. The guests last attack was stopped with a foul, but Akingbala missed both free throws.
Notes:
Ventspils led for 42 seconds, only.
Tartu Rock's head coach said after the game:"The last game we were bad and lost, now we are better and therefore won the game!", "I'm happy and right now the only thing i'd like to do is go to bed and rest."
Ventspils head coach was furious about the quality of the referees - "None of today's game referees is capable of refereeing in BBL, neither are half of the referees in Latvia and Lithuania!"