Vashington Heroics Fall Short As Triumph Win Decider

BC Triumph joined the EuroChallenge Final Four party after pulling away from a determined Ural Great in the second half on Wednesday for a 78-63 victory.

In a battle of Russian outfits, the Moscow Region team overcame an upset in Game 1 to win the Quarter-Final series 2-1.

Triumph joined Proteas EKA AEL and Virtus BolognaFiere in the Final Four, with the last spot to go to the winner of Wednesday's other Quarter-Final decider between Cholet and BC Kyiv in France.

Stanislav Eremine's BC Triumph only led 42-41 at half-time but then held the visitors from Perm to just eight third-quarter points.

Triumph did their damage on offense inside the arc, making 27 of 41 (65.8%) while Ural Great relied on long-range shooting to stay in the game for three quarters.

They finished 13 of 31 (41.9%) from three-point land.

Eremine watched his team build a 31-15 lead with 7:46 to go in the second quarter, with Sergey Toporov (8 pts) and Ognjen Askrabic (7 pts) showing the way.

Ural Great fought back, however.

Darius Vashington drilled consecutive three-pointers and Alexey Surovtsev buried a third in a 9-0 run that closed the gap to 33-27.

Vashington proved to be  unstoppable in the frame and continued to pour in the points.

His three-point play shaved the deficit to 34-32 with 2:50 to go and also took his personal tally to a 18.

Vashington ended the first half with another three-point play to leave his team trailing only 42-41.

He went to the changing rooms with a game-high 24 points.

After the restart, a pair of Fedor Dmitriev baskets and a jump shot by Egor Vyaltsev accounted for a 6-0 run and extended the Triumph advantage to 48-41.

This time, the Moscow Region team didn't let their lead slip. They finished the frame with a 61-49 advantage.

Ural Great hero Vashington cut the deficit to 63-55 just over a minute into the final period but his team got no closer.

Triumph reeled off 11 straight points - the first nine scored by Marque Perry - to open up a 72-55 lead and put the result beyond doubt.

Perry had 19 points to pace Triumph, while Vashington finished with a game-high 33 in defeat.

Quotes BC Triumph vs. Ural Great

Stanislav Eremin, BC Triumph Head Coach:

"We started the game playing well, at a good speed, we showed well-balanced offense and defense. But Vashington gave us a lot of problems, he's really a very strong player, it's very hard to stop him. And in the second half Egor Vyaltsev played well on offense against Vashington and thanks to our offense and fast breaks we made a good run and we made a very comfortable score for us."

Egor Vyaltsev, BC Triumph Player:

"It was the most difficult game in the Quarter-Final series. Ural Great never gives up. Also after the first game we wanted to present the victory to our fans on the home court, and we made it!"

Fedor Dmitriev, BC Triumph Player:

"It's a very important victory and we deserved it thanks to our team game. Today we showed the team game, thanks to my partners for playing well and thanks to all the fans for great support!"

Alexandar Kesar, Ural Head Coach:

"We gave all we could. But we played without the injured Bashminov, he's a very important part of our team. We've got a lot of problems with injured players before the game, that's why it was so hard to show an equal game during all 40 minutes wiagainst a strong team like Triumph, but we played hard. Now we'll concentrate on the upcoming games of the national league."

Fedor Likholitov, Ural Great Player:

"Our goal was to win tonight. It's a pity that we lost by so much."

Darius Vashington, Ural Great Player:

"I can't say that I'm disappointed because we played with all out heart and gave all 100% of our desire to win."