FIBA Basketball Champions League season starts
Tuesday presented an historic moment in European hoops as the FIBA Basketball Champions League opened for business. The 2016/2017 season is the first of FIBA’s new continental competition and twenty clubs lined up for the debut evening of the competition. There were ten games on Tuesday, with the remaining twenty clubs playing out ten games on Wednesday.
Groups A through E produced some exciting hoops to open the FIBA Basketball Champions League, and here’s how the day went:
Group A
Banvit travelled to Ironi Nahariya and came away with a deserved 70-83 road success. The game was tied 21-21 through the first quarter, but the Turkish visitors went into halftime 43-47 in front. Banvit built on that with 18 points in Q3 and Q4, the last act defining the game as Nahariya only scored 8 points.
Bakken Bears made the FIBA Basketball Champions League through the qualification process. However, the Danish team was downed 57-75 by Czech champs CEZ Nymburk in round 1. After trailing 39-33 through halftime, Nymburk combined solid defence with hot offence in the second half to take the win. The guests hit 83% from the charity strip to collect plenty of free points.
Helios Suns played host to Aris and was undone 54-62 by the Greek guests. This low scoring game saw the Suns edge the first half 27-30 before pulling away with winning third and fourth stanzas. Aris put together an unselfish winning effort, with a number of players getting on the scoreboard more than once.
Monaco welcomed Fraport Skyliners Frankfurt to the French principality and promptly dispatched the Germans with a 65-47 success. The hosts sacrificed a blistering offence in favor of keeping it tight at the back, evidenced by the visitors not even breaking 50 points. Monaco had a ten point lead at the long break and was comfortable during the second half.
Group D
Juventus Utena got off to a winning start at home with a 91-84 win over French threat Strasbourg. The hosts bookended their performance with two hot frames. A 30-15 first act and 27 points in the fourth allowed Juventus to edge and exciting contest. Gytis Sirutavicius topped the winners with 25 points as the team hit 40% of their three point efforts.
Sidigas Avellino took out Mega Leks 70-84 on the road. The Italian club looked to the 21 points of Leland Levin Randolph to pace the victory. The guests also impressed from free throw distance, draining 100% of their uncontested shots. Avellino led throughout and scored 46 points in the second half to pull away from Mega leks.
Spanish club Tenerife showed that it will be a danger team in the Champions League with a road win over Cibona. Indeed, the club smashed the hosts with a 57-85 success in arguably the most impressive performance of the opening day. As solid as Tenerife was in attack, the win was built at the back. The guests allowed just 5 points in the third quarter.
Group E
AEK Athens gave Tenerife’s performance a challenger with a 92-49 demolition of Szolnoki Olaj in the Greek capital. AEK poured in 50 points in the first half and continued to punish an Olaj team that simply failed to show up. The Hungarians will have to improve vastly in coming games, and maybe will enjoy the comforts of home more than being on the road.
Proximus Spirou Charleroi slipped to a high scoring Besiktas at home during round one. The Belgians were outperformed as Besiktas romped to a 75-92 victory. The Turkish club broke 20 points in each quarter with a scoring rate that simply overwhelmed the hosts. Vladimir Stimic recorded a double-double of 21 points and 11 boards in the win.