Estudiantes Beat Nahariya, Advance To Round II

12.12.2006

Club Estudiantes ended their successful EuroCup Group A campaign with a 92-83 win that ended the hopes of their opponents, Ironi Iscar Nahariya.

The Israelis were pipped to second spot by France's JDA Dijon while the Spanish club improved to 5/1.

It was a close match and after Estudiantes took the first quarter 26-21, Ironi hit back to take the second 23-19 to close within a point with the interval scoreline 45-44 in favour of the Spaniards.

At the start of the third quarter two Ido Kozikaro jump shots put the Israelis into a 48-45 lead only for Marlon Garnett to nail a threepointer to make it all square again.

Another Garnett three-pointer and jump shots from William McDonald and Goran Nikolic saw Estudiantes pull out to a 58-53 lead.

By the end of the third quarter it was 74-66 to the hosts but at the start of the fourth, Barak Peleg drained a three-pointer.

A Vedran Vukusic jump shot brought the score back to 77-75 but that was as close as the Israeli outfit got.

Garnett was top scorer with 21 points - incredibly all of them came from downtown with seven from nine outside the arc - while Carlo Suarez added 20, Nikolic 14 and McDonald 11.

For the beaten Israelis Juan Mendez impressed with 20 points and a game-high seven boards although his shooting could have been better with a conversion rate of 11 from 21, including five from 11 inside the paint.

Peleg and Kozikaro managed 15 points each while John Gilchrist and Vukusic poured in 14 each.


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