Friday was packed with Cup action, as nine different Turkish Airlines EuroLeague teams competed across the continent. Eight of the nine won, each by a winning margin of 13 points or more.
Domestic Cups: Mike James stars, EuroLeague teams win big
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Greece: Olympiacos, Panathinaikos return to the finals
Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens and Olympiacos Piraeus are back to the Greek Cup finals. Olympiacos earned the right to defend its Cup crown, and try to win its fourth straight, after a 94-75 win over PAOK Thessaloniki. The Reds overcame a slow start, and a 5-13 deficit with a 12-1 second-quarter run to take a 44-35 halftime lead. Olympiacos and PAOK traded buckets for most of the third quarter and the first 5 minutes of the fourth, before the Reds sealed the deal.
Sasha Vezenkov scored 21 points, Shaquielle McKissic had 18, and Giannoulis Larentzakis netted 16 in a win. Rocky Kreuser pace PAOK with 18 points.
Panathinaikos reached the finals with a 91-73 over Promithas Patras, as they will be looking to win their first Cup title since 2021. Konstantinos Mitoglou paced Panathinaikos with 17 points plus 9 rebounds, Wenyan Gabriel scored 11 of his 14 points in the first half, Cedi Osman had 13 points and Kendrick Nunn 11 in a win.
The Greens took the lead for good at the end of the first quarter through Cedi Osman, who also continued to lead the way in the second quarter. With some help from Konstantinos Mitoglou, Panathinaikos opened 41-31 lead at the break. The Greens kept the margin safe after the break, with Mitoglou’s triple making it 63-50 after 30 minutes, and Panathinaikos scored the first 10 points of the fourth quarter before cruising to victory.
Serbia: Zvezda, Partizan to face off in the finals
Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade and Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade will face each other in the all-EuroLeague Serbian Cup final in Nis, Serbia on Saturday. Partizan led from start to finish in a 83-63 win over Mega Superbet, while Crvena Zvezda earned a right to battle for its fifth consecutive Serbian Cup crown after an 84-63 semifinal win over FMP Soccerbet on Friday night.
Filip Petrusev had 22 points plus 8 rebounds, Joel Bolomboy collected 16 points and 8 rebounds and Dejan Davidovac posted 12 points and 8 rebounds in a win. Zvezda’s opponent in the final will be either arch rival Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade or Mega Superbet.
Petrusev scored 13 points in the first quarter to set the tone, but Zvezda did not pull away in the first half. A three-pointer apiece from Nemanja Nedovic and Isaiah Canaan in the last 5 minutes of the second quarter helped Zvezda to 41-35 halftime lead. Bolomboy extended the margin to double digits early in the third quarter, but FMP was not going away and cut the margin to 56-53 late in the third. But Zvezda replied with a 10-2 run, capped by a triple from Yago Dos Santos that restored a double-digit margin early in the fourth, and Crvena Zvezda never looked back.
In the second semifinal, Partizan pulled away to 36-22 lead with a 10-0 second-quarter run fueled by Tyrique Jones, Sterling Brown and Duane Washington. Lead was as big as 19 points, and 49-33 at halftime. Mega closed the gap in the third quarter, 53-46, but Tyrique Jones and Washington quickly restored a double-digit margin, and Partizan never looked back.
Washington was Partizan’s leading scorer with 17 points, Brown netted 13 and Aleksej Pokusevski had 12 points and 6 rebounds in a win. Bogoljub Markovic paced Mega with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
Turkiye: Fenerbahce beats arch rival, returns to finals
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul ran past Galatasaray Istanbul 89-74 to book a place in the Turkish Cup finals where it will face another fierce rival, Besiktas Fibabanka Istanbul. This is the fifth consecutive edition of the Turkish Cup that will see Fenerbahce play in the finals. Nigel Hayes-Davis scored 10 of his team-high 18 points in the key third quarter for Fenerbahce. Marko Guduric and Errick McCollum each scored 14 points, and Tarik Biberovic had 10. William Cummings scored 22 for Galatasaray.
Fenerbahce took control in the first quarter with a 15-2 run, with Wade Baldwin and Hayes-Davis in main roles. Three-pointers from Biberovic and Sertac Sanli opened a 36-26 lead in the second, and it was 42-35 at halftime. A 13-0 third-quarter run fueled by Guduric, Biberovic and Hayes-Davis broke the game open, giving Fenerbahce a 58-42 lead, and coach Sarunas Jasikevicius’s team rolled to a victory.
Spain: Los Blancos blast their way into semis
Real Madrid has made the first step towards its Spanish Cup crown defense, beating Manresa 92-69 in their quarterfinals game on Friday night. Mario Hezonja led Real with 24 points and 6 rebounds, Sergio Llull had 13 points, while Andres Feliz and Facundo Campazzo 11 apiece.
Hezonja scored the first 5 points, followed by back-to-back triples from Hugo Gonzalez and Llull, all in a 16-4 run that opened the second quarter, put Los Blancos up 38-26. Real held 43-30 at the break. Real extended the lead to 59-37 in the third quarter, and cruised the rest of the way, booking a place in the semis where it will play the tournament host Dreamland Gran Canaria.
France: Monaco, ASVEL reach semis
AS Monaco beat Cosea JL Bourg-en-Bresse 101-88 to book a place in the Leaders Cup semifinals, where it will face a fellow EuroLeague side LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne which beat Strasbourg 90-75 on Friday in Caen, France. Meanwhile the defending champ Paris Basketball is out of after an 86-92 quarterfinals loss against Saint Quentin.
Monaco’s Mike James scored 16 points in the first two quarters, including 10 consecutive that helped Monaco turn a 19-28 deficit into a 35-30 lead. But Joel Ayayi strung together 6 unanswered points for Bourg, starting a late second-quarter run that put Bourg up 46-51 at halftime. The teams kept trading blows throughout the second half before Strazel first set-up Petr Cornelie for an alley-oop dunk three-point play, then Strazel nailed a three-pointer to help open an 85-79 lead with 5 minutes to go. Elie Okobo’s 5 points, including a three-pointer, and a James-to-Cornelie alley-oop opened a double-digit lead, 93-81, as Monaco booked its place in the semifinals.
James finished with 31 points, and Okobo scored 18 in the win. Ayayi had 15 for Bourg, while Maksim Salash, Hugo Benitez and Jean-Marc Pensa scored 11 apiece in a loss.
In the last game of the night, ASVEL finished the first half on a 12-1 run, fueled by big men Tarik Black and Joffrey Lauvergne, which gave it a 44-36 halftime lead. ASVEL then scored the first 7 points of the third quarter, and never allowed its win to come into question the rest of the way. Theo Maledon and Lauvergne each scored 16 points, while Andre Roberson collected 14 points and 13 rebounds. Brice Dessert scored 15 for Strasbourg.
Earlier in the day, Paris had TJ Shorts and Nadir Hifi combine for 26 first-half points to hold a 49-37 halftime lead, and the margin was 14 points after the first possession of the third quarter. But Saint Quentin rallied back behind Nolan Traore and Dominik Olejniczak, and took the lead late in the third and kept a slim lead for most of the fourth. In the final minute, with Paris down 86-87, Yakuba Ouattara’s corner triple rimmed-out, only for Oniangue to bank a shot-clock beating three on the other end, with 10.3 seconds to go, sealing Saint Quentin’s win. Shorts scored 24 points, and Hifi had 20 in a losing effort. Traore had 20 for the winner, while Olejniczak collected 13 points and 13 rebounds.