09.12.2003

Ural Great Perm 89 GHP Bamberg 61

Having lost only once in this year’s FIBA Europe League competition to Bamberg in Germany, Ural Great wanted to exact revenge and use their home court advantage in front of 5000 fans. And they were very successful, easily beating their German rivals 89-61.

		Former NBA-player Mahmud Abdul Rauf made his first appearance for Ural Great

From the first minutes of the game on the Russians took the initiative and kept it for the whole match. Stevan Nadjfeji and Ruslan Avleev together with former NBA-player Mahmud Abdul-Rauf, who made his first appearance for Ural Great, helped their team to get an reassuring lead after the first quarter (24-9).

The second period belonged especially to Sergei Chikalkin and Valeriy Daineko. Their successful performance in offense brought the score difference up to 20 points (47-27). Nevertheless, Bamberg did not give up after the shock of the first minutes. in particular, Jason Sasser and Mikel Nahar kept their team alive.

In the second half Ural Great played balanced offense and aggressive defense; Vincent Jones making four blocked shots in only ten minutes (total of 8 in the game). After the advantage increased up to 30 points Sergei Belov allowed his bench players to get some experience on the court: Aleksandr Belov and Fedor Dmitriev entered the game. Bamberg at this point stopped resisting. The only player who kept on going “normally” was Jason Sasser scoring 11 points in the last quarter.

Game-MVP: Jason Sasser

09.12.2003

Quotes Ural Great Perm - GHP Bamberg

Dirk Bauermann, Head Coach, GHP Bamberg:

“Ural Great played very well in defense and in general it was an outstanding game of them. We did not have a chance tonight. The aggressive defense of the home team stopped Gert Kullamae. A 28-points loss is hard to accept. But the home team deserved this victory.”

Jason Sasser, GHP Bamberg:

“Ural Great played very well tonight. They beat us in every area. Unfortunately we did not perform on our usual level. We did not manage to play our game.”

Sergei Belov, Head Coach, Ural Great Perm:

“I am glad we finally got to build our game on defense. We made conclusions from our first game against Bamberg on their home court, which we lost. Today we managed to find the way to play against their leaders and we proved we are on the right direction.”

Sergei Chikalkin, Ural Great Perm:

“We only lost once in FIBA Europe League competition this season and it was a loss to Bamberg. This fact has been very hurtful to us and that is why we wanted to win so much today. This is a key victory to us, which makes us the sole leaders in our group. We proved that Ural Great is a strong and serious contender and our goals remain the same high.”