How will things look post-Round 15?
Game Center: Roads wins for Bahcesehir, Bourg, Cluj, Joventut
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Wednesday, January 15
Turk Telekom Ankara 77-65 Veolia Towers Hamburg
Turk Telekom remained firmly on course to reach the playoffs with a hard-fought home win over Hamburg in Group B, improving to 9-6 while the German side dropped to 3-12. Anthony Brown paced Turk Telekom with 18 points and Yoan Makoundou added 16 to go with 6 boards. At the other end, Jordan Barnett netted 18 points and Kur Kuath registered a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Aris Midea Thessaloniki 51-92 Cosea JL Bourg-en-Bresse
Bourg avoided a slip-up in the fight for the playoffs with a dominant victory at Aris Midea Thessaloniki. Bourg gave up only 26 points in the first half to improve to 8-7, giving it two straight wins after a three-game losing skid. Brandon Paul poured in 19 points and Xavier Castaneda had 14 points to pace Bourg. Aris was eliminated from playoff contention as it fell to 3-12 on the season and 1-6 at home. D’Moi Hodge had 11 points as Aris’s leading scorer.
Buducnost VOLI Podgorica 84-83 Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv
Buducnost outscored Hapoel 10-1 in the final minute to complete a comeback from a 13-point deficit to win at Moraca. The victory raised Buducnost’s record to 7-8 and put it in sixth place in Group A, while Hapoel fell to fourth place with a 9-6 record. Despite the loss, Hapoel clinched a ticket to the postseason. Rasheed Sulaimon paced the winners with 19 points and Alen Omic tallied 4 points and 9 rebounds and in doing so moved past Jamar Smith (1,396) and into fourth place on the EuroCup’s all-time scoring charts with 1,399 points. Bruno Caboclo paced the Hapoel attack with 16 points.
Trefl Sopot 78-81 Bahcesehir College Istanbul
Bahcesehir came back from an 18-point deficit to beat Trefl, improve to 13-3 on the season and clinch first place in Group A with three games to go. Already-eliminated Trefl dropped 1-14. Trefl made 7 of its first 11 three-point attempts to open a 43-25 lead, but Bahcesehir halved the deficit before halftime and then erased the rest in the third quarter, before pulling out the win in the final minutes. Jaleen Smith paced the winners with 25 points and 9 rebounds and Tai Odiase scored 20 points in the victory. Nick Johnson netted 18 points for the hosts.
Umana Reyer Venice 77-88 U-BT Cluj-Napoca
Cluj bounced back in style from last week's loss by pulling off a hard-fought win in Venice against Reyer. Despite being ahead for 29 minutes, Cluj saw Venice tie the game entering the last period but managed to hold on and punished its opponent with a 0-10 run late in the game after the home team came within 77-78. Zavier Simpson led all scorers with 25 points and also contributed 6 rebounds and 7 assists for a career-high PIR of 36. DJ Seeley followed with 16 points. Tyler Ennis paced Reyer with 19 points of which 15 came in the first half, and Mfiondu Kabengele recorded a double-double of 17 points and 10 boards in the losing effort.
Dreamland Gran Canaria 77-83 Joventut Badalona
Joventut downed Gran Canaria on the road to continue its great run of play. Joventut took control of the game with a 0-13 third-quarter run for its third win in the last four games in the EuroCup. That takes its record to 6-9 in Group A. Joventut improved to 2-6 on the road as it collected its ninth victory in the last 10 games in the Spanish League and EuroCup combined. Kassius Robertson and Sam Dekker led the way with 13 points each. Gran Canaria has now lost three of its last four EuroCup games for a 10-5 record. John Shurna finished with 14 points in the loss.
Tuesday, January 14
7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys 91-96 Valencia Basket
Valencia became the first team to qualify to the EuroCup Quarterfinals after downing Lietkabelis 91-96 on the road. Valencia improved to 13-2 in Group B and locked at least second place at the end of the regular season, enough to skip the eighthfinals and play the single-game quarterfinals at La Fonteta. Lietkabelis dropped to 4-10 and could be mathematically out of the playoff race at the end of this round. Semi Ojeleye led the winners with 20 points. Jaime Pradilla, Chris Jones and Jean Montero each added 14, Xabi Lopez-Arostegui had 13 and Nate Reuvers got 11 for Valencia. Martynas Varnas led Lietkabelis with 19 points. Paulius Danusevicius added 14, Georgios Kalaitzakis 13, Djordje Gagic 11 and Dovis Bickauskis 10.
Besiktas Fibabanka Istanbul 79-77 Wolves Twinsbet Vilnius
Besiktas picked up a massively important victory in the fight for the playoffs as it defeated Wolves 79-77 at home after a nightmare start to the second half. Besiktas survived going scoreless for more than 7 minutes in the third quarter and falling behind by 11 points to win down the stretch and snap a three-game losing streak for an 8-7 record. Jonah Mathews poured in 27 points for the hosts, Berk Ugurlu added 20 points and Kelan Martin and Dustin Sleva both chipped in 10 points. Wolves have now dropped five of the last seven games for a 7-8 record. The one good thing for the Lithuanian side is they still own the tiebreaker over Besiktas thanks to its 93-78 home win in Round 6. Anthony Cowan scored 22 points in the loss.
Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem 70-74 Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana
Cedevita outscored Jerusalem 7-15 over the game's last 4 minutes to claim victory at Samokov Arena in Bulgaria. The victory sent Cedevita into second place in Group B with a 9-5 record, while Jerusalem is right behind at 9-6. Brynton Lemar led the Cedevita attack with 17 points against his former team and Aleksej Nikolic added 16 – including 6 free throws down the stretch to help seal the win. Justin Smith and Jared Harper scored 16 each for Jerusalem, with the latter also dishing 8 assists.
Dolomiti Energia Trento 86-71 ratiopharm Ulm
Trento kept alive its slim chances to reach the postseason by blowing out Ulm at home. Trento scored the first 15 points of the game and never looked back in snapping a three-game losing streak to move to 5-10 in Group A. Anthony Lamb led the way for Trento with 21 points and Jordan Ford picked up 20 points on a night when Trento’s veteran Toto Forray became the EuroCup’s all-time leader in games played with 145. In addition, Mario Machetti played the final 74 seconds at age 15 years, 9 months and 1 day to become the third-youngest player in EuroCup history. Ulm has lost back-to-back games after winning five straight games for a 9-6 record. Noa Essengue was Ulm’s top scorer with 18 points and 8 rebounds.