Buzzer-Beating Beasley Lifts Den Bosch To Win

EiffelTowers Den Bosch stunned Khimik Yuzhny 92-91 with a buzzer-beating jump shot from Jerome Beasley on the opening night of the EuroChallenge.

In a thrilling finish, Khimik's Oleksandr Kolchenko made just one of two free-throws with 14 seconds remaining to put the hosts on top by one.

EiffelTowers went to the other end and Dean Oliver put up a jump shot and missed, however, Beasley grabbed the offensive rebound and scored right at the death to win the Group B contest.

Late in the first half, it had appeared the Dutchmen would cruise to victory.

EiffelTowers led 51-33 but Darrel Mitchell, who had a game-high 26 points for the Ukrainian team, made two free-throws to cap a 6-0 run at the end of the second quarter to leave the home side trailing 51-29.

An Anthony Richardson basket took EiffelTowers' advantage back to 56-41 with 7:56 to go in the third quarter but Khimik chipped away at the deficit.

When Andrii Kalnichenko connected from long range, the home side went to the final frame behind 74-68.

EiffelTowers went back in front by 10, only for Khimik to eventually claw all the way back and knot the contest at 86-86 with 2:52 remaining.

The game remained tight the rest of the way and Den Bosch, thanks to the resilient Beasley scraped a one-point victory at the end.

Netherlands international center Peter van Paassen was outstanding for Don Beck's side.

Van Paassen made 10 of 15 shots from the floor and scored 24 points while also hauling in eight rebounds.

Stefan Wessels had 17 points and Kees Akerboom 16.

Beasley finished with a 14 points and 12 rebounds while Oliver scored 12.

Andriy Agafonov and LaVell Blanchard had 16 points apiece for Khimik.

Quotes Khimik vs. EiffelTowers Den Bosch

Dmitriy Bazelevskiy, BC Khimik head coach:
"I agree with every word that the captain of the team said. The beginning was really tough. We lost a lot of balls in the first half of the game. I think our attack was fine but we couldn't lead it to the result. We were so nervous that we couldn't get together.  I hope that every player will draw a conclusion for himself. There is nothing impossible. The opposite team was much stronger, with a wonderful players, with a great experience in the EuroChallenge. Though we managed to show a fight."

Don Beck, Eiffel Towers head coach:
"A wonderful game. Physically hard one. The only thing I was surprised of was the huge difference in three-throws. I would like to wish good luck to the coach of "Khimik" in Ukrainian Championship. We liked your arena and the city."

Jerome Beasley, Eiffel Towers player:
"We got ready for a very difficult physical game. This team fought for every ball. Though the score during the game was huge but "Khimik" didn't give up and fought and that was difficult for us. We couldn't believe that it was happening. But we've got ourselves together and in the last seconds won the game."

Andriy Agafonov, BC "Khimik" player:
"We didn't manage to accomplish anything from what we planned. At the beginning of the game we were walking on the court. I can't explain why. Maybe because we got scared. It's seemed that we looked forward to win the game. The beginning was terrible. Our game was not confident. After the main break we started play our defense and managed to bring the score level. But the luck was on the side of the opposite team. Unfortunately, Sasha Kolchenko missed one of the free throws. I could make a rebound but failed."