ESP – Pepu claims first win at DKV as club halts seven-game skid

BADALONA (ACB) - DKV Joventut tasted victory for the first time under new coach Pepu Hernandez with a 96-69 blowout of Ayuda en Accion Fuenlabrada.

Clay Tucker had 20 points for DKV, whose recent poor form had seen the club fall out of the play-off places and led to the sacking of Hernandez's predecessor, Sito Alonso.

Serbia internationals Luka Bogdanovic and Luka Bogdanovic had 11 and 10 points, respectively, for the winners.

DKV snapped a seven-game losing streak with the triumph and improved to 12-13.

They are in ninth place - one spot below Gran Canaria 2014.

Hernandez was the coach of Spain’s gold-medal winning side at the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan.

Gran Canaria prevailed 90-65 over Suzuki Manresa.

Both DKV and Gran Canaria are 12-13, the same record as seventh-place Unicaja Malaga, who were 71-68 losers at relegation-threatened Meridiano Alicante.

Croatia's Mario Stojic and former Turkey international Serkan Erdogan each had 16 points for Alicante (9-16).

Great Britain international Joel Freeland finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds for Unicaja.

League leaders Regal Barcelona improved to 23-2 after a 79-72 home triumph over CB Granada.

Pete Mickael poured in 23 points and hauled in eight rebounds for Barca, who also got 17 points and five boards from Slovenia international Erazem Lorbek.

Argentina national team center Juan Gutierrez finished with 16 points and seven rebounds for Granada.

Gutierrez buried two of three shots from long range.

Real Madrid are in second place at 20-5 after their 78-67 victory over Power Electronics Valencia.

Ettore Messina's Madrid broke open a tight game at the beginning of the fourth quarter by going on an 11-1 run for a 66-53 advantage.

Three players set to play in Group D at the 2010 FIBA World Championship were in top form for Madrid.

Lithuania's Darjus Lavrinovic had 16 points and five rebounds while Felipe Reyes had a game-high 23 points with five boards and his fellow Spain teammate Sergio Llull contributed 11 points on perfect five-of-five shooting from the floor.

Valencia slumped to fourth place.

Caja Laboral are also 20-5 but they lost 74-58 at Asefa Estudiantes.

Greece’s Kostas Vasileiadis hopes to earn a spot in his country's preliminary squad for Turkey.

He had 27 points and six rebounds for Xacobeo Blu:sens in their 86-77 win over Lagun Aro GBC (Gipuzkoa Basket Club).

Xacobeo Blu:sens are second bottom of the ACB at 8-17 and just one game behind Lagun Aro GBC and Alicante.

In other ACB clashes over the weekend, Bizkaia Bilbao Basket scraped a 58-57 victory over CB Murcia and Cajasol Sevilla edged Blancorueda 69-64.



FIBA