ESP – Granada edge Sevilla after late Ivanov miss

SEVILLE (ACB) - Cajasol Sevilla made the ACB play-offs last season but they’re having a tough time in 2010-11 with Sunday proving to be a very bad afternoon for the club.

Granada edged them 73-72 with Argentinian Nicolas Gianella’s 17 points leading the way.

Icelandic guard Jon Stefansson hit a three-pointer with 43 seconds remaining to put Granada into a 71-70 lead.

With the visitors clinging to a 73-72 lead in the last 10 seconds, Sevilla had the last shot and Tariq Kirksay found himself open behind the arc and launched a shot but the French international's attempt hit the front and then back of the rim and stayed out.

Bulgaria international Kaloyan Ivanov grabbed the offensive rebound and should have scored on the put-back as he was wide open, yet he missed and time expired.

Even worse for Sevilla, who dropped to 2-5 with the defeat, was the loss of high-scoring guard Earl Calloway to a right foot injury that will sideline him for an indefinite period of time.

Regal Barcelona, Caja Laboral and Real Madrid continue to set the pace in Spain's ACB with each club winning at the weekend to improve to 5-1.

A couple of less celebrated outfits are also flying high in Blancos Rueda Valladolid and Lagun Aro GBC.

Each club improved to 5-2, with Valladolid overcoming 25-point Rafa Martinez of Power Electronics Valencia to win 78-71 and Lagun Aro riding the hot hand of Javier Salgado (19 pts) to prevail 80-70 over Bizkaia Bilbao Basket.

The loss was a seventh in a row for Valencia, last year's Eurocup winners who sacked coach Manuel Hussein after their Euroleague defeat at home to Armani Jeans Milano on Thursday.

Now they are third bottom at 1-6 in the ACB.

At the top of the table, Barcelona won 76-62 over Fuenlabrada, Caja Laboral prevailed 84-70 at CAI Zaragoza and Real Madrid claimed a 72-64 victory at DKV Joventut.

Estudiantes won for the second time, beating Unicaja in Malaga, 64-53.

Jakim Donaldson was on the losing side in Menorca's 88-77 defeat at Gran Canaria but the 2.04m forward was the MVP of Week 7 after scoring 21 points and hauling in seven rebounds.

Manresa finally tasted victory for the first time this season in a 70-67 triumph at Alicante.

FIBA