Petteri Koponen Watch: Coach is on to something Edition

I try not to post back-to-back Petteri Koponen entries, but there are times that call for it. After a deflating stretch of play the Blazers draftee has bounced back with his best game of the season. H.T., as always, fills us in...

It seems that Petteri Koponen didn't let two mediocre performances in Serie A linger in his head for too long. This Tuesday Virtus Bologna travelled to Istanbul to meet local team Galatasaray in the additional round of FIBA EuroChallenge Cup. Koponen overcame the difficulties of past weeks and finished with his best stat line as a professional so far: 17 points (fg 6/8), 4 assists, 4 steals and one rebound (to go with zero turnovers) in 32 minutes of play. Virtus Bologna used a 20-0 run in third and fourth quarters to run away from Galatasaray and won the game 91-104 (55-50).

For Bologna, Sharrod Ford had 17 points and five rebounds, Earl Boykins finished with 14, 7 and 8 assists and Guilherme Giovannoni had 16. Leading scorers for Galatasaray were center Huseyin Besok (27) and small forward Antonio Graves (25).

And here's Bologna coach Matteo Bonicinolli's comment about the game, courtesy of fibaeurope.com: "The energy of the team to believe we can win this game was given by our younger player Koponen who is improving day-by-day and who gave the team an example of how to play this kind of game, with energy and enthusiasm."

Bologna continue their Serie A campaign this Sunday against Armani Jeans Milano at home. Next Tuesday Bologna continue FIBA EuroChallenge Cup at home against German Bundesleague team EWE Baskets Oldenburg (featuring Rickey Paulding, Jason Gardner and former Blazer Ruben Boumtje Boumtje). Oldenburg lost their first game of EuroChallenge Cup additional round at home against Ukrainian team BC Kyiv.


-The Omnipotent H.T.