Allen Iverson and his Beşiktaş Cola Turka may have won the courtroom battle yesterday but they lost the courtside war in losing to Asvel Basket, 88-85.
Iverson comported himself well enough on defense with three steals, but was fairly unimpressive offensively, going for 2-of-5 shooting and dishing four assists in 20 minutes.
Beşiktaş fans were surely feeling some crippling déjà vu once again as the Eagles engaged in yet another close match, having dropped all three Eurocup games in 2010 by three points or less, blown by the Black-and-White after entering the fourth quarter with a lead.
Up eight to start the final stanza, Beşiktaş put in one more bucket before Asvel came back to torch the Turkish side with a 16-2 run that would ultimately help seal the deal and drop Beşiktaş to 0-2 in the competition.
What’s that? *0-2* after losing three games? Oui.
In a rare reversal of a final result, last week’s BG Goettingen win over Beşiktaş/Iverson’s German debut has been declared void by independent arbiter Patrick Grandjean. (Bang also goes A.I.’s first good European performance from the record.)
Grandjean ruled that “the original game was invalid due to the failure of the game clock to stop at the end of 40 minutes,” which thereby allowed Trent Meachum to heave his “buzzer-beater” to win the game for Goettingen.
With all apologies to Goettingen, the TV replay itself supports Grandjean’s ruling; Meachum is clearly allowed to run nearly the length of the floor after the gameclock hits 0.0 – sans buzzer, too.
While Goettingen backers are perhaps a tad incensed at this unusual ruling, club managers probably aren’t too depressed about the opportunity to host what is certain to be another full-capacity crowd for an appearance by Mr. Answer. Euroleague/Eurocup authorities have yet to reschedule the rematch, but it will be played sometime in December, as the Eurocup pool play round ends on December 21.
