1. Perkins - Bree -
5.1
2. Conlan - Mons - 3.9
3. Jordan - Char - 3.7
4. Van Rossom - O - 3.4
5. Wilson - Verv - 3.1
Oostende Wins Belgian Cup
Telindus Oostende beat Dexia Mons-Hainaut 66-63 to win its 11th
Cup of Belgium.
The game could not have started any better for Oostende, who took a
17-5 lead at the 6 minute mark of the first quarter. Bree then went
on a 9-0 run run to close the gap to 3pts, with a pair of FTs by Ben
Ebong making it a 17-14 contest. The margin remained at 3 at the end
of the first quarter (20-17).
Oostende was not able to keep control of the score, and slowly Mons
fought its way back into the lead at the end of the 2nd quarter when
Jim Cantamessa made a 3pt shot to give his team the lead at the
half, 35-33.
Things went from bad to worse when Mons opened the 3rd quarter
with a pair of treys from Lenzly and Gray, giving them their biggest
lead of the game at that point, 41-33. After Van Rossom and Petrovic
narrowed the gap to 2 points, it was Greg Brunners' moment to help
his team reclaim the lead with a dunk and a 3-pointer, giving
Oostende a 46-43 lead with under 3 minutes to go in quarter number
3. Of course this would not be a cup game if Mons was going to give
up this late in the game and, thanks to free throws by Evans,
Reinking and Cantamessa, they got even with Oostende in the 29th
minute before Chuck Davis scored a free throw of his own to give his
team a 1-pt lead going into the final 10 minutes.
Oostende took the better start in the last quarter and took a
55-49 lead courtesy of Van Rossom and Ivory. Titus Ivory's last
score was followed by layups from Evans and Sullivan before he again
with a 3pt shot gave Oostende another 5 pt lead (58-53) at the 35
minute mark. Just when it seemed Mons was about to lose control of
the game, they bounced back thanks to scores by Gray and Conlan who
tied the game at 61 with 2 minutes to go. Mons even took the lead
again in the final minutes on 2 ft's by Ben Ebong, but once again it
was Titus Ivory who got his team back on the right track with a 3pt
shot made giving them a small 64-63 lead. Maybe more important than
the score was Cantamessa's offensive foul caused by Veselin Petrovic
to give Oostende possession of the ball in the final moments of the
game. After an Oostende time-out, Mons had no option but to foul an
Oostende player.
Jerry Green (191-G-80, college:
Cal-Irvine) was perfect from the line and gave Oostende a 66-63
lead in the closing seconds. Travis Conlan missed the final layup
and Oostende came away with a hard-fought Belgian Cup win at the
Spiroudome in Charleroi.
In a comment to Eurobasket, coach Sharon Drucker said that
teamwork and sacrifice were the keys to this win. He also added that
he is proud that his team brought the Cup back to Oostende after 7
years.
Following is a comment from Oostende Captain Sebastien Bellin:
'As far as the game i think it was a great win for Oostende but
also for Belgian basketball.
I think we need to give the Mons fans a lot of credit for the
atmosphere they created along with the Oostende fans..
it was two very good teams playing in a great atmosphere and you can
only take positive from that for the future of basketball here in
Belgium..
as far as Oostende is concerned this Cup win completes on of our
major goals for this season and
hopefully will generate even more energy for us to complete the last
objective we have left this season...'
Mons : Ben Ebong 8, Justin Gray 13, Travis Conlan 6, Andrew
Sullivan 7, Mike Lenzly 14, George Evans 4, Nate Reinking 4, Jim
Cantamessa 7, Jim Potter 0.
Oostende : Titus Ivory 9, Veselin Petrovic 8, Jerry Green 15,
Chuck Davis 7, Sam Van Rossom 11, Elvir Ovcina 4, Chris McCray 2,
Greg Brunner 10, Sebastien Bellin 0.
2006-2007
Oostende with the league trophy (Photo: De Morgen)
Oostende won another Belgian Championship title (Photo: De Standaard)
FIBA
EuroCup:
Liege: took 1st place (3-1) in Group E, took 4th place
(1-5) in Group I
Charleroi: took 2nd place (4-2) in Group B, took 4th
place (1-5) in Group K
ULEB Cup:
Oostende: took 6th last place (4-6) in Group C
Mons-Hainaut: took 6th last place (1-9) in Group
D
Player of the Year -
Len Matela (206-C-80) of Antwerp Giants Guard of the Year -
Trevor Huffman (187-G-79) of Aalstar Forward of the Year -
George Evans (202-F/C-71) of Mons-Hainaut Center of the Year -
Len Matela of Antwerp Giants Play-Offs Co-MVP -
Veselin Petrovic (194-G/F-77) of Oostende,
Rashad Wright (189-G-82) of Oostende Bosman Player of the Year -
Veselin Petrovic of Oostende Import Player of the Year -
Len Matela of Antwerp Giants Domestic Player of the Year -
Sam Van Rossom (188-G-86) of Oostende Coach of the Year -
Chris Finch of Bree
Oostende wins Championship
Telindus
Oostende won its 12th Championship and 2nd in a row now
beating Bree at home 100-77.r>
The game was pretty much over just minutes after it
began. Oostende was on fire and started with a 10-0 in
the first couple of minutes.
Van Rossom who bruised his hand after a fall in game 4
did play and even started the game and he was the one
who scored the layup for the 10-0 run.
Bree slowly got back in the game and came back to within
15-11. Sadly for Bree this was the closest they would
come for the rest of the game.
Oostende led after 10 minutes 30-18.
Oostende was not going to let this game get out of hand
and by the 16th minute of the game led 51-29.
With the last score of the 1st half Veselin Petrovic
made it 62-37. Petrovic scored 21 pts in the first half.
The rest of the game is history, on a couple of
occasstions Bree is able to get the score difference
under 20 pts but to no avail, coach Drucker is not going to let him team lost track
of their goal, the championship.
The last 2 Oostende buckets are made by their
reserves L'Hote and Ilongo to make it 100-77.
Sam Van Rossom (188-G-86) finishes the game with 17
pts and 5 assists.
Oostende won their second championship in a row after
a very tough and difficult season.
They went through 17 players this season, 6 players
left the team during the season and 3 were signed after
the break.
They also had to deal with injuries to Sam Van Rossom
and Veselin Petrovic who combined missed about 20 games.
The biggest reason for their championship run however
was the arrival of
Sharon Drucker in December of 2006 who managed to make Oostende play as a team again.
After the signing of their new coach Oostende made
some more personel changes with among others the
arrivals of Ivory, McGowan and Bozeman. After Drucker arrived in
Oostende it took a while for his concept to hit home but
with a win on the road at Bree in the next to last game of the season they
were able to claim the nr 2 spot in the standings.
Thanks to Bree's elimination of Charleroi in the
semi-finals this 2nd place gave Oostende home court
advantage in the finals with the hoped for result in the last game of the season.
Oostende : Laurent Lhote 2, Christian Ilongo 2, Sam
Van Rossom 17, Rashad Wright 14, Cedric Bozeman 0,
Sebastien Bellin 0,
Veselin Petrovic 22, Titus Ivory 8, Glen McGowan 7, Eric
Hicks 13, Elvir Ovcina 15.
Bree : Odell Hodge 7, Jeff Horner 15, Kelvin Torbert
11, Ben Ebong 16, Brian Lynch 7, Lynard Steward 3,
Jim Cantamessa 12, Nate Reinking 0, Scott Emerson 4, Tom
Van Camp 0, Martijn Hendrix 2
Antwerp Giants win Belgian Cup
The final of
the Belgian Cup took place on Sunday in Leuven and pitted
the Antwerp Giants vs Liege.
This was the last chance to make something out of the season
for Liege who finished in 8th place in the league.
Liege took the best start of the game and led 0-6 in part
due to the 0 for 9 shooting on the Giants part.
Antwerp however began to score and only trailed by 3 after
10 minutes. Len Matela and Gur Shelef reacted to the Liege
lead and the result was an 31-28 Antwerp lead at the half.
Liege started the 3rd quarter on fire and thanks to Conlan
and Souchu took a 39-45 lead.
After that it all went downhill for Liege who were outscored
21-2 when Norvell threw down a dunk to give the Giants a
60-47 lead.
Just when all the Giants fans though the game was won, Liege
fought its way back to within 2 pts at 66-64 on a McCollum
3pt shot.
With 15 seconds to play Gur Shelef found Senne Geukens who
finished off a hard-working Liege team.
The final score
was 70-64
This was Antwerp's first cup win since 2000, the year they
also won the championship. Antwerpen: Yves Dupont 2, Alexander Lichodsjewski 2, Ed
Norvell 7,
Gur Shelef 12, Dwayne Archbold 10, Senne Geukens 9,
Kelley McClure 9, Len Matela 10, David Toya 9. Liege: Xavier Colette 2, Travis Conlan 6, Karim Souchu 17,
Stephane Pelle 17,
Francois Lhoest 0, Scott Brakebill 11, Ryan Moss 2, Ronnie
McCollum 9.
FIBA
EuroCup:
Leuven: took 4th place (2-4) in Group B Mons-Hainaut: took 1st place (4-2) in Group C, then took 2nd place (4-2) in Group K, lost 1-2 to Khimki in the quarterfinals ULEB Cup:
Bree
: took 3rd place (5-5) in Group A, lost to Hapoel Jerusalem in the 1/8 finals Charleroi: took 3rd place (5-5) in Group C, lost to Dunamo Moscow in the 1/8 finals
