Fuenlabrada Move Closer To Playoffs

Fuenlabrada took another step towards the EuroChallenge Quarter-Finals by winning at BC Nizhny Novgorod on Tuesday.

BC NN led by as many as 10 points in the first half but ended up falling, 78-70, as the Spanish club won for the fourth consecutive time in this phase of the competition.

The hosts suffered their fourth defeat in as many Last 16 games and now have no chance of moving into the last eight.

The Russian club, which nearly sent their first meeting with Fuenlabrada in Spain back on January 10 to overtime, lost the initiative in the rematch in the second quarter.

Up 33-24 after a three-point play from Artem Yakovenko, BC NN allowed the visitors to claw their way back.

Saul Blanco ignited the Fuelabrada rally with a three-pointer and after Michal Ignerski turned the ball over with a bad pass, Fuenlabrada's Jon Cortaberria scored in transition.

Blanco then nailed a jumper to reduce the arrears to 33-31.

Leo Mainoldi's jumper on a fast break for Fuenlabrada left the visitors trailing, 39-37 at half-time.

The impressive youngster Adrian Laso knotted the game at 39-39 with a dunk at the start of the third quarter for Fuenlabrada and Blanco later put them in front at 42-41 with a three-ball.

BC NN reclaimed the lead with a Vadim Panin basket, but Fuenlabrada then went in front to stay.

Andrey Ivanov was called for an unsportsmanlike foul on Leo Mainoldi and the Argentina international sank both free-throws.

Fuenlabrada maintained possession and Alvaro Munoz buried a three-pointer.

Mainoldi then struck with a shot from the arc to push the lead to five.

Blanco followed with another jumper and after Yakovenko tried to stop the bleeding with a basket for BC NN, Munoz hit again from long range to stretch the advantage to 55-47.

Fuenlabrada went on to outscore the hosts 23-11 in the quarter for a 60-50 lead.

The hosts got to within seven early in the fourth quarter and five with 27 seconds to go in the contest.

Fuenlabrada killed the game off when Mike Hall hit a three-pointer for the last points of the contest.

Blanco had 16 points while Laso and Cortaberria had 10 apiece for Fuenlabrada.

Aliaksandr Pustahvar scored a game-high 17 points in defeat.

Quotes BC NN vs. Fuenlabrada

Zoran Lukic, head coach of BC NN:
"It is a pity we lost this game. Our advantage during the first half was 10 points, but we made a lot of ​​mistakes and turnovers and let the opponent score. Unfortunately, in the second half we played bad defense. The opponents pushed my players to shoot for three-points. And you can see how many open shots we missed, unlike our opponent, who scored all their shots."

Porfirio Fisac, head coach of BC Fuenlabrada:
"This game was more important for us in some way. We did everything [in order] to win; we took a lot of rebounds, shot a lot of treys. In the third quarter it was important for us to score three-pointers."

Vadim Panin, BC NN player:
"We made a lot of mistakes in the second half of the game, we missed a lot of three-point shots and played in a bad way in defense. This influenced a lot the game. I can't say we are not strong enough to win, but we still we still play worse in the second half of our games. We have to identify the reason and improve our play."

Robert Joseph, BC Fuenlabrada player:
"We were supposed to win and we did it. The weather in Russia is terribly cold but we survived it. We could play agressively in defense and we shot a lot of three-pointeers. That's why we won."