| 21.12.2007
The second week of the EuroCup qualifying round saw five teams stay undefeated while another five dropped to 0-2.
PAOK Thessaloniki and Spartak St. Petersburg went to sleep too early, while Tartu Rock's Gert Kullamae, Proteas EKA AEL's Miultin Aleksic and Khimik's Olu Famutimi woke up just in time.
The Good News
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Olumuyiwa Famutimi was the man for Khimik this week.
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| Kullamae is back
If there was an equation of shooting skills to popularity Gert Kullamae would probably be on top of that list. He's one of the best shooters in Europe in the past 20 years, but not too many are aware of his lethal hand. Legend has it he once made 96 out of 100 three-point shots in practice, but there were enough actual games in which it was easy to see that the first rule of basketball says "Do not leave Kullamae open". Playing for the Estonian national team prevented him from showing his skills at the very top level, and his career in the club scene outside of his native country spanned only six years between Belgium, Holland and Germany – not the top leagues of Europe. And why is this all relevant? Because at the age of 36 Mr. Lethal showed again what he has. Back in his home country he led Estonian side Tartu Rock to a big and surprising 77-57 win over group favorites CSK-VVS Samara. How? Well, he took only one shot from two-point range (and missed it), and didn't go to the free throw line even once but the sharpshooter still managed to hit 24 points by nailing eight of his 12 shots from long range. A classic Kullamae show, and it took only 26 minutes to get it done. The whole team of Samara, if you're curious, had a total of three out of 14 shots from the same distance.
Lappeeranta two-sides
If you dared to under-estimate Lappeeranta, the club from Finland, then reality will hit you sooner than expected. After eliminating a much more experienced club from Cyprus – Keravnos – and forcing Samara to work hard for more than three quarters before losing on the road, they scored a big 83-74 over PAOK. The Greeks couldn't handle the missiles from long range by the locals, who hit 15 three-pointers at a 46.9% clip. This means more than half of the Finnish points came from behind the arc, but it doesn't tell the whole story. Lappeeranta won the game thanks to a 27-7 run in the second quarter. In that period they scored only four times from their beloved range, which means in the deciding times they showed they can do more than just shoot well, and that was enough to take down PAOK.
Olu's run
Last week we gave a shout out to Barons LMT for knowing how to handle pressure and playing their best at the end of games. This week they showed their different side. For the fourth game in a row Barons entered the last minute with a question mark on the identity of the winner, only this time the momentum was far at the other end of court. With 4:14 left Giedrius Gustas made it 78-69 for the locals, but until the very last second Barons didn't add even a single point. Khimik went on a 15-0 run to collect a key road win, 84-78. The man behind that run was the Canadian Olu Famutimi. The athletic forward is one of the most consistent players in the EuroCup so far with steady contribution in the points and rebounds departments (14.8 ppg and 6.5 rpg so far), but his best game came this week. In the final run he scored eight points out of Khimik's last nine, and those were exactly the ones which made the difference from trailing to leading the game. He added one block, one steal and a key offensive rebound he corrected to give his team their first lead since the second quarter with 00:39 to go in the game.
Don't even think about it
In their big march to the EuroCup quarter-finals last year Proteas EKA AEL showed their home arena should be listed among Europe's most difficult places to visit for a road team next to the arenas of Zadar, Aris Thessaloniki and Maccabi Tel Aviv. They didn’t drop a single home game despite facing top clubs like Azovmash, Vidi Vici Bologna, Estudiantes and Asvel. This week they sent out a clear message to be heard all around the EuroCup, that getting a win in Limassol is out of the question. KK Zagreb escaped from Cyprus with a 103-80 loss. AEL scored an amazing 76.5% from two-point range and a very good 47.4% from long range. Miultin Aleksic, a GNBN favorite, presented a perfect game. He made every one of his eight shots from close range, his single long range shot, grabbed seven rebounds, dished four assists added one block.
The Bad News
Spartak's drought
Spartak St. Petersburg showed history can repeat itself this week. They opened their
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Armands Skele and Barons suffered a rare collapse.
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| EuroCup trip with a home loss to a Greek team – Maroussi, but managed to repair in the second leg to make it to the group stage. Last week they gave up a lead in Zagreb after leading for three quarter and losing the last one 24-16. This week came another home loss to a Greek team when Olympia won 75-66, only now their last quarter fall was much bigger. With 6:36 to go in the game the locals still held a promising 65-52 lead, and nothing seemed to bother their peace and quiet. Well, they were wrong. From then until the final buzzer Olympia went on a 23-1 run which left the Russian side dazed and confused. Not often do you get to see a club, especially with the high level roster of Spartak, go into such a drought. In this run Spartak lost only two balls, the rest just refused to slide inside the rim. In total they missed all their 12 field goal shots and their charity stripe status wasn't much better – one out of seven. There's not even one player to blame – it was a team effort. The first seven missed shots of the 12 were taken by seven different players.
PAOK's fall
In the qualification round PAOK had to hide behind a big curtain to hide the shame of losing to a club from Romania. In the second week of the qualifying round there's another blow for PAOK's image with an easy road loss to Lappeenranta – a club from another country with a basketball tradition far smaller than Greece.
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