Plenty of players used Round 2 of the 2023-24 BKT EuroCup season as their personal stage for major performances that, alas, didn't always guarantee victory.
Round 2 roll call: Big performances, win or lose
Stats
5 Mins read
Cobbs was near-perfect for Cedevita
When he hit a go-ahead shot with 2.1 seconds left in overtime, it seemed that Justin Cobbs had done it all for Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana. His team was heartbroken when Andres Feliz of Joventut Badalona subsequently beat the buzzer and stole the victory, but what Cobbs did on Wednesday was still rare. He shot 10-for-13 from the field, including 10 of 11 two-pointers and both his triples for 28 points. He also had 4 rebounds and a team-high 4 assists plus a steal and drew 7 fouls for a PIR of 36. Only one previous Cedevita player had ever made more field goals or two-pointers, his teammate Karlo Matkovic last season.
Olaseni continued leading London
Gabe Olaseni joined London Lions with a leading role and is proving he's ready for it. In Round 1, his late heroics allowed London to beat Umana Reyer Venice at home. In Round 2, Olaseni led London to a 94-100 road victory over Veolia Hamburg Towers with 18 points on 7-for-10 two-point shooting, 7 rebounds, a block and 5 fouls drawn, good for a PIR of 22. After a long career in Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Turkey, Olaseni is making the most out of this opportunity in this homecoming: London's arena, The Copper Box, is barely 6 kilometers away from his hometown of Plaistow.
Dziewa adjusted to new team quickly
Veolia Towers Hamburg battled hard in Round 2 but could not get its first win, registering a 94-100 home loss against London Lions. The good news is that center Aleksander Dziewa had a really solid performance. In over 33 minutes on the floor, bouncing back from a sub-par performance against Prometey in Round 1, Dziewa finished the game with a career-high 28 points on 10-for-12 two-point shootings. He added 6 rebounds and 7 fouls drawn to match a personal-best PIR of 30. At age 25, Dziewa is in his third EuroCup season and keeps only getting better and better.
Arslan paced Besiktas from downtown
Besiktas Emjaklet Istanbul is undefeated in Group A and its domestic players have to do a lot with it. Berk Ugurlu and Berkan Durmaz delivered in Round 1, helping Besiktas beat Joventut Badalona. In Round 2, Yigit Arslan led Besiktas to a resounding 92-70 win against Prometey Slobozhanske. He finished the game with 24 points on 5-for-7 three-point shooting, 3 assists and a PIR of 23 coming off the bench. An elite three-point shooter, Arslan is living up to his reputation, having downed 8 of 14 attempts from beyond the arc (57.1%) so far this season.
Slask's Miletic made his presence felt
Slask Wroclaw lost 67-70 to U-BT Cluj Napoca in heartbreaking fashion, as it threw away its late lead. One of the reasons why it was able to establish an advantage in the first place was the play of Dusan Miletic, who finished with a round-high 5 blocks. The 25-year-old, who joined Slask over the summer, had previously only made 3 blocks across his seven-game career in the EuroCup, so he definitely made quite an impression on Wednesday night.
Bassas showed his scoring touch
Scoring the basketball is not usually Ferran Bassas’s remit for Dreamland Gran Canaria, but the 31-year-old guard exploded for his joint second-best tally for in Round 2, scoring 21 in a dominant 111-82 win against ratiopharm Ulm. The last time that Bassas broke the 20-point mark was in the second leg of Joventut Badalona’s tie against Virtus Segafredo Bologna in the 2021 EuroCup Quarterfinals, when he scored 26 points. Before that, the only other occasion in which he had 20 points or more was when he matched Wednesday night’s tally of 21 points against Unicaja Malaga in the Top 16 of the 2020-21 season.