Belgacom Earn Comeback Win At Krasnoyarsk

Belgacom Liege prevailed after a thrilling fourth quarter at Enisey Krasnoyarsk on Tuesday in the EuroChallenge.

The home side, winners of its first two Group E games, led 58-54 heading into the final frame but ended up falling to an 84-78 defeat.

Michael Green scored 23 points and Adrian Banks 20 for Belgacom.

The Belgian team seized the initiative with an 8-0 run at the beginning of the final period to turn the four-point deficit into a 62-58 lead.

After stretching that to 69-63 with 4:26 to go, Belgacom allowed the hosts to battle back and knot the contest at 69-69 with a Lionel Chalmers lay-up.

The game had one more tie as Latvia national team center Kaspars Kambala sank a pair of free-throws to make it 71-71.

Banks split a pair at the charity stripe to put his team in front to stay.

Will Thomas followed with two more free-throws for a 74-71 Liege lead.

With 1:31 to go, though, Krasnoyarsk's Vladimir Dyachok buried a jumper to reduce the deficit to 74-73.

Alex Ruoff connected from behind the arc and after Dyachok turned the ball over, Thomas made one of two at the line for a 78-73 Belgacom advantage.

After Ruoff made two more free-throws to give Liege an 80-75 lead, Frederick Warrick responded with a three-ball to give Krasnoyarsk hope.

But Green went to the free-throw line and sank two attempts and the Russian team's faint hopes were finally dashed as Green stole the ball from Warrick.

Banks ended up scoring the last points of the contest for Belgacom.

Chalmers and Kambala each scored 19 points in defeat.

Krasnoyarsk lost despite making nine of 16 shots from long range.

The free-throw line was crucial, with Belgacom 21 of 29 compared to nine of 15 for Krasnoyarsk.

The visiting team also out-rebounded the Russians, 30-22.

Quotes Enisey Krasnoyarsk vs. Belgacom Liege

Gjergja Dario, Belgacom Liege Coach:

"This is a very important victory for our team, and we won as a team.  It is good that four players made over 10 points. I am satisfied with the concentration they showed in the game. Enisey is a strong team, but today they did not have this concentration, especially for Kambala after the tragedy in his family. Demeshkin took us by surprise causing us so much trouble, even though we thoroughly watched out opponents games. It was hard for us to play with this six-hour difference, I do not know how we will play our next game in Belgian championship when we get back."

Michael Green, Belgacom Liege:

"It was a hard game, both teams played rough, and showed a good game. But we both had so many turnovers. Probably the reason was the good defense."

Ainars Bagatskis, Enisey Coach:

"We've lost one battle but did not loose the war. I can see two reasons in today's loss. First of all too many errors. Eight turnovers in the fourth quarter and that was without pressure, that was too much! In the last two games we won we had 10-12 TOs. I cannot see the reason for that. We will look into that, but if our best men loose the ball that's unexplainable! And the second problem we absolutely did not rebound well today."