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Head-to-head: Ferran Bassas and Axel Bouteille

Head-to-head: Ferran Bassas and Axel Bouteille

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15 March 20233 Mins read

Head-to-head: Ferran Bassas and Axel Bouteille

A lot will be at stake on Wednesday when Gran Canaria (12-3) welcomes Turk Telekom Ankara (11-4) in a clash between two of Group B's top teams. A pair of veteran 7DAYS EuroCup shooters, Ferran Bassas and Axel Bouteille, will find themselves facing off, too, in a matchup that could sway the outcome.

Gran Canaria has already secured home-court advantage in the upcoming eighthfinals and will guarantee itself a top-two finish in Group B with a home win that would mean a season sweep over Turk Telekom.

When these teams met in Round 7, Gran Canaria pulled out an 81-88 win in Ankara with Bassas scoring 7 points and dishing a season-high 8 assists. Bouteille had 9 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists for Turk Telekom. That marked the only game in the last 11 in which Bouteille scored fewer than 12 points.

Since that below-par performance against Gran Canaria, only two players in the competition have scored more than the Turk Telekom forward, who is averaging 19.0 points over that span and ranks fourth in scoring for the season with 17.8 per game.

The 30-year-old Bassas and the 27-year old Bouteille might not play the same position but they know each other well from the Spanish League and Bouteille's time there.

They were on opposite times one more time in the EuroCup prior to this season. On that occasion, in March 2021, Bassas scored 21 points on a career-best 6-of-10 two-point shooting and 3-for-4 behind the three-point line. He also had 3 assists and 2 rebounds playing for Joventut Badalona in a 77-90 loss against Unicaja Malaga. Bouteille netted 14 points on 4-for-7 two-point and 2-for-6 three-point shooting for Unicaja that day. He also had 2 assists, 2 rebounds and a career-high 5 steals.

Both of those games finished with road teams victorious. Bouteille would love to continue that trend, as then Turk Telekom would remain in play for first place in the group. Bassas, who ranks seventh with 5.5 assists and first with 10.4 assists prorated over 40 minutes, will try to make sure that Gran Canaria protects its home floor it hopes to play on as much as possible in the playoffs.