UCAM Murcia win in Sassari cauldron

SASSARI (Basketball Champions League) - UCAM Murcia nearly blew an 18-point second-half lead but held on to beat Dinamo Sassari, 94-88.

The Spanish club, after watching the Sardinian outfit score the game's first seven points, finally found its feet and came back to take a 42-38 advantage at half-time.

Among their best plays was one that saw Great Britain international Ovie Soko catch an alley-oop pass and dunk with authority.

After the break, events pointed to a big Murcia triumph, with Sadiel Rojas drilling a 3-pointer and Cleven Hannah getting fouled while attempting one from deep. He made all three free-throws to start an 11-0 run for the visitors. Brad Oleson also connected from the arc in the spurt to push the advantage to 53-43.

When Marko Lukovic buried another 3-ball, the Murcia lead was 62-44 with 3:48 to go in the third quarter.

Charlon Kloof of Murcia made one of the plays of the game in the quarter, hustling back on defense to block a lay-up attempt by Dinamo Sassari's Levi Randolph.

In the fourth quarter, though, Dinamo Sassari pulled out all stops to come back and they nearly did.

Jonathan Tavernari (two) and Scott Bamforth hit 3-pointers at the start of the frame as Dinamo, who also picked up their defensive pressure, closed the gap to 67-64. Tavernari, who hit 4 of 5 shots from long range, fouled out after logging just 13 minutes of action in the contest.

Murcia, doing much of their damage at the free-throw line, kept their noses in front and managed to win by 6, which gives them the advantage in a potential tie-breaker in Group A against Murcia by the end of the Regular Season.

The Sardinian club won the first game in Spain, 83-78, which means Murcia have a +1 in their two meetings.