Woodside Lifts Dunkerque At The Death

BCM Gravelines Dunkerque used a late 7-0 run - all scored by Benjamin Woodside from the free-throw line - to beat KK Buducnost 82-74 and move top of Group A in the EuroChallenge.

In a game that was close throughout, Gravelines led all the way through the fourth quarter but twice saw their lead cut down to three.

That happened for the second time on Marko Simonovic's free-throw with 1:07 to go, making it 75-72 to the visitors.

But after Woodside got a steal from Nikola Otasevic, he was fouled and a technical sent him to the line for four free throws.

He sank all four to put his team up by seven with 44 ticks left.

Otasevic had not learned his lesson and 15 seconds later he fouled Woodside again.

This time he could only split a pair, but no matter, as after a Nemanja Gordic turnover he was fouled by Goran Jeretin and got another go, this time making both to Dunkerque up by 10 with 22 seconds left.

Vladimir Dragicevic had the final word with a lay-up, but it was too little too late for Buducnost.

Woodside finished with 17 points, making nine of 10 shots from the free throw line, while Juan Edwards led Dunkerque with 20.

Dragicevic had 17 for Buducnost, while Ivan Maras had 12 and Cedomir Vitkovac made 11.

Quotes KK Buducnost vs. BCM Gravelines Dunkerque

Dejan Radonjic, Buducnost head coach:
Congratulations to Gravelines for the victory. They entered the game in high style especially with shooting range and proved that it would be a very difficult game for us. In the third period they made, for this game, a very big lead. Only in the final quarter we played defense on an appropriate level and came into the position to fight for the match. But we failed to score some open shots, some free throws that could have given us the victory. Their individual quality impressed my players and they didn't continue with great performance like in the last four games.

Christophe Monschau, BCM Gravelines head coach:
To win here is a great performance of my team. In the second half we showed great defense against a very potent shooting team. Otherwise we wouldn't have a chance to win here. They played very good basketball; they are very well coached so we had to give our best. We had many times lead from the beginning. And if you look at that yes we won easy. But it was not easy. It was very difficult. Buducnost came back a lot of times. We scored important free throws and decided the game in the last two minutes.

Tony Stanley, BCM Gravelines player:
It was a good match but also very, very difficult from the first minute to the end. My team played good on defense and very wide on offense. That allowed our big guys to have easy situations and they scored from it. The winner was decided in last quarter when we played hard on defense and didn't allow them to score easy points.