Lukoil Deliver Fourth-Quarter Knockout

Lukoil Academic hammered visiting Lisboa e Benfica 92-71 on the opening night of the EuroChallenge Regular Season.

Latvia international center Kaspars Kambala had 18 points and four others reached double figures in scoring for the Bulgarian outfit.

Jovica Arsic's team reeled off the game's first 10 points with Travis Peterson pouring in six on a lay-up, a jump shot and a dunk.

When Brandon Bowman made a lay-up with 1:31 to go in the first quarter, the lead was 25-10.

Gregory Jenkins knocked down a jumper to cut the deficit to 32-25 in the second quarter but Benfica got no closer.

Benfica did manage to stay within striking distance into the fourth quarter, with Ben Reed's two free-throws reducing the arrears to 68-60.

Lukoil then blew the game wide open.

Bozhidar Avramov buried two three-balls and Damjan Stojanovski hit another in an 11-0 run that gave the hosts a 79-60 stranglehold on proceedings with seven minutes left.

Arsic's side walked off the court with a 21-point triumph.

Lukoil made 25 of 30 free-throws with Kambala a perfect six of six.

Quotes Lukoil Academic vs. Lisboa e Benfica

Lukil Head Coach Jovica Arsic:
"I'm generally satisfied with the final score but we could've played better if we would've stayed focused until the end of the game. There was some tension within the team because this was our first game from the group stage of the EuroChallenge and sometimes you don't really know what to expect. However, based on our scouting of Benfica we knew which their strongest game aspects are and I believe tonight we were able to stop them. In the third quarter we allowed Benfica to get closer to tying the game because of our bad defense. They were able to score on a few fast breaks decreasing our lead. We have very though games coming up in the group stage of the EuroChallenge. It won't be easy to play against any of the teams in our group. Playing on the road against Benfica won't be easy at all because they have a lot of fans and good atmosphere. I believe they could play better than the way they played tonight. The fact that we were able play a very good game on the road against Aris, in Thessaloniki makes me believe that we can play the same way in the remaining away games."

Henrique Vieira, Head Coach Lisboa a Benfica:
"We didn't begin the game well. Lukoil was better in the paint. They attacked us a lot in the low post and made us foul, sending them to the free through line and giving them the chance to score a lot of their points in the first quarter. We allowed them to get a significant lead, we tried our best to get back in the game but we weren't able to stop Lukoil."

Veselin Veselinov, LUKOIL Academic Player:
"Playing our first game from the tournament of EuroChallenge, I was a little nervous starting the game but then I cooled down and I was able to play normally. I think everything went well, we played good defense and we were able to stop our opponent. We're about to play away in Estonia against Tartu, and we must win so that we can end up first in the group. I don't believe there was any underestimation. After all we were up in the score throughout the whole game and we didn't lose the initiative."