Triumph Shock Dexia With Late Comeback

BC Triumph pulled off the comeback of the EuroChallenge season so far and stunned Dexia Mons-Hainaut 76-73 in Moscow on Tuesday in their Top 16 encounter.

Trailing 70-55, the Russian outfit outscored Chris Finch's team 21-3 over the last four and a half minutes of the game to improve to 2-0 in Group L and leave Dexia 1-1.

Stanislav Eremine's team started the fightback when Valery Likhodey hit a three-pointer and both Ognjen Askrabic and Pavel Sergeev scored on lay-ups.

Sergeev was fouled on his shot and made the free throw for a three-point play to close the gap to 70-63.

Dexia's Elton Nesbitt, who was off target with a three and turned the ball over on his team's previous two possessions, then missed two free throws and Ernest Bremer went to the other end for Triumph to make a lay-up and cut the deficit to just five with 3:24 to go.

Nesbitt again went to the line and sank just one of two, but neither team scored agains until 1:51 remained when Egor Vyaltsev buried a three-pointer for Triumph.

That shot reduced the arrears to 71-68 and another lay-up by Askrabic made it a one-point game.

Dexia continued to have trouble on offense, with James failing to connect on a mid-range jumper.

Triumph's Likhodey drew a foul and made a pair of free throws to give the home side the lead for good.

After Ben Ebong travelled for Dexia, Egor Vyaltsev and Nesbitt each made two free throws.

With time running down, Dexia fouled Sergeev and he only drilled the first of two shots at the line.

The Belgian outfit wasn't able to keep Likhodey off the boards, however.

He grabbed the rebound to maintain possession for Triumph and was fouled by Potter.

Though Likhodey only made the second free throw to leave Dexia with six seconds, Sergeev intercepted a Nesbitt pass and time ran out as Triumph celebrated a memorable victory.

Kelvin Torbert had a game-high 20 points in defeat for Dexia, while Vyaltsev led a balanced Triumph attack with 16 points.

Quotes BC Triumph vs Dexia

BC Triumph Head Coach Stanislav Eremin:
We had a very hard situation before the game. Panin was injured and Bremer got cold and had the fervour during four days. And tonight he came out on the court with no practice and I appreciate it a lot. He helped a lot at the end of this dramatic game. Also Askrabic wasn't not in a good state of health, but he is a very important part of our team. I think that Dexia showed its real power and proved that it is one of the strongest team of Eurochallenge. Dexia plays very aggressive in offense and were ahead for three quarters. And I'm very glad that we turned the game around, found the key to the opponent defense and won.

BC Triumph Player Valery Likhodey:
It was a very difficult game. Though we started good, but we lost in the second and third parts of the game. But thanks to our fans support we made this victory!

Dexia Head Coach Chris Finch:
It was the tough game. We had to win this game after leading with such a big margin. I think that two three-pointers were the key moment and they cut down our lead.

Dexia player Kelvin Torbert:
I think that we played good for thirty minutes of the game. We had the chance to win, but Triumph turned very aggressive in the second part of the game, especially in the last quarter. They made good rotation at the end and were successful in shooting.