ESP – DKV Joventut missing Brit Mensah-Bonsu but beat Granada

BADALONA (ACB) – DKV Joventut are missing Spain guard Ricky Rubio as he recovers from a wrist operation and now the Badalona team is without Great Britain big man Pops Mensah-Bonsu for an indefinite period due to a shoulder injury.

The 25-year-old Mensah-Bonsu hurt his right shoulder during Britain’s successful qualifying campaign for EuroBasket 2009 and he again felt pain after DKV’s Euroleague game at Roma last week.

The 2.06m power forward/center, who led EuroBasket Division A in blocked shots (1.8) and was second in rebounds (10), on Monday flew to the United States to get a second opinion on the injury.

“Pops Mensah-Bonsu is travelling to the United States today to visit a prestigious American specialist with the objective of obtaining a second opinion on the extent of the injury suffered in his right shoulder,” DKV Joventut said.

Despite playing without Rubio and Mensah-Bonsu, DKV rolled to their fourth triumph in six ACB games on Sunday, a 93-76 victory over Granada - the team that Mensah-Bonsu played one game for last season and helped avoid relegation.

In a battle of heavyweights, defending champions Tau Ceramica piled on the misery for Real Madrid on Saturday with a 91-81 win in Vitoria.

Tau, who got 26 points for Serbia’s Igor Rakocevic and 15 from Argentina’s Olympic playmaker Pablo Prigioni, broke open a close game in the third quarter when they outscored Madrid 30-18.

Spain big man Felipe Reyes, a silver-medal winner at this year’s Olympics, had 20 points and eight rebounds in defeat.

Another bronze-medal winner from Argentina, Paolo Quinteros, erupted for 26 points, including a 12-of-13 effort from the charity stripe, as CAI Zaragoza beat MMT Estudiantes 89-85.

Regal Barcelona continued their impressive start to the campaign. Just days after thrashing Panathinaikos in the Euroleague, the Catalan outfit prevailed 88-81 at Fuenlabrada.

Australia international David Andersen poured in 24 points and Spain’s Juan Carlos Navarro 23 while Ersan Ilyasova of Turkey had 11 boards to go with his six points for Barca.

Kalise Gran Canara won 76-72 at home over ViveMenorca. Canada international Carl English scored 20, Great Britain’s Joel Freeland had 12 and Senegal’s Sitapha Savane 10 with seven rebounds for the Canary Islanders.

Luke Recker made four of eight shots from long range and finished with 19 points as iurbentia Bilbao Basket clinched a 79-70 win over Bruesa.

Title challengers Unicaja Malaga rolled to a 90-65 victory at CB Murcia and Ricoh Manresa claimed an 82-75 victory Pamesa Valencia.

Unicaja, Barcelona and Tau all share the league lead with 5-1 records, with Gran Canaria fourth at 4-1.

Estudiantes and Murcia are bottom of the table with 1-5 marks.

FIBA