JOENSUU (Basketball Champions League) – Kataja Basket registered their maiden win in Group B and did so in memorable fashion in front of their fans as they snapped Le Mans' two-game winning streak with a 77-76 victory in overtime on Wednesday night.

With Kataja trailing 76-74 and four seconds remaining in the extra period, Daniel Mullings drove to the basket, made the lay-up and drew the foul. He converted the three-point play and Le Mans failed to fire off a shot on the other end, for the Finnish crowd to erupt in celebrations.

"I wanted this game to go exactly the way it went, I wanted us to stay close and snip it at end," said Kataja head coach Gregg Gibson at the post-game press conference. "The biggest thing about my guys tonight was that we competed, we played our butts off and any time you play hard, even though we made some silly turnovers, you have something to show for it.

"Even with eight seconds to go I felt confident, I wasn't sure how we were going to do it but we were able to get that five-second count (on Le Mans inbounding the ball) and we got the win," the Kataja coach added.

Neither team led by more than seven points at any point and while the amazing accuracy of Le Mans from the stripe, where they made 23 of their 24 free-throw attempts, appeared to be lifting them to the win down the clutch, Kataja were rewarded with the final play for their tendency to run in the open floor at any chance they got, scoring 17 points in transition.

Byron Wesley led the winners with 18 points and eight rebounds, game hero Mullings finished with 14 points and four boards while Teemu Rannikko had a near double-double of 12 points and nine assists.