Eurochallenge: Last 16 set to tip-off January 15
The Eurochallenge regular season is in the books and the field for the Last 16 is finally set. In some groups the decision wasn’t made until the last seconds of the Week 6 games, in some, the decision was done long before today. Bottom line though, the Last 16 brackets are set with the first round coming on January 15th.
Group A
Pinar Karsiyaka wins the group and by beating KRKA Novo Mesto Tuesday, Tofas SC Bursa moves on. This group came down to the wire as Tofas only held a three-point advantage on KRKA in the tie breaker, so all KRKA had to do to move on is win by four points and they would be making arrangements for their Last 16 competition. Tofas won, 70:72, so the difference over two games for KRKA was six points extra points.
Group B
Krasnye Krylia wins the group. Joensuun Kataja and Keravnos both lost on Tuesday, so Kataja moves on with a 3-3 record.
Group C
BK Ventspils remained undefeated, beating Sodertalje 90:56. The second spot came down to a remarkably close tie breaker. The last three teams, Sodertalje Kings, Norrkoping Dolphins and Pyrinto Tampere finished the regular season with 2-4 records, so the tie breaker first went to head-to-head records. All three teams won both of their home games and lost both of their road games, giving all three teams identical 2-2 records between them (the tie breaker tosses out any games against the team not involved in the tie breaker, Ventspils). The second criteria for breaking the tie is goals ratio. Norrkoping scored 290 and gave up 286 over four games; Sodertalje scored 268 and gave up 267; Tampereen scored 298 and gave up 303. So just looking at the goal differential, Norrkoping’s difference is 4; Sodertalje 1; and Tampereen -5, which sends the Norrkoping Dolphins into the Last 16 by 3 points.
Group D
CS Gaz Metan Medias matched-up with BC Khimik Yuzhne in Week 6 in a contest that only mattered to Gaz Metan to determine their opponent in the first game of the Last 16 as they qualified earlier. For Khimik the anxiety level around the club had to have been high since the scenarios were presented to them after Week 5 as they have two options, win the group or get bumped from the Last 16 completely, but it was all in their hands. Coming into the contest, Khimik was down two points in the tie breaker due to the Gaz Metan victory in Romania. On the back of a 89:66 rout, the Russian squad takes over the top position in the group heading into the Last 16 phase of the Eurochallenge. Had Khimik lost and Tartu Rock won on Tuesday, Khimik would have been eliminated and Tartu Rock would have moved on due to winning the tie breaker.
Group E
Coming into Week 6 Paris Levallois and Okapi Aalstar had both qualified for the Last 16, so their final game was to determine which club won the group. Paris held a one-game advantage, so a win for them would give them the title, a loss would mean Okapi would have to cover the 10-point advantage Paris held after the first match between the two. Okapi Aalstar used a huge advantage in the first quarter and rode that margin to the end to come out with an 81:90 win, but they came up two-points short of group title. Paris made a run in the second quarter in an attempt to come back, but their guests won both of the final frames to hold on to the win.
Group F
EWE Baskets Oldenburg won the group with an unbeaten 6-0 record after beating then current second place club Lami-Ved Kormend, 67:90. Szolnok Olaj KK faced last-place BC Timisoara in Week 6 at home and came out with a 77:71 win and the second invitation to the Last 16 from Group F.
Group G
BCM Gravelines Dunkerque qualified last week due to winning tie breakers with both SLUC Nancy Basket and Tsmoki-Minsk. Gravelines hosted Apollon in their Week 6 contest and handled the Greek club soundly, coming out on the high side of an 88:64 decision. The win gives Gravelines the group title. Tsmoki-Minsk traveled to France to take on SLUC Nancy and earned the second Last 16 spot with a 57:63 victory. Nancy gave everything they had to come back from a 35:48 deficit at the end of the third quarter, but it wasn’t enough and Tsmoki-Minsk will move on.
Group H
Entering Week 6, Group H was completely up in the air as three teams were fully in the hunt and none were safely on the other side of the qualification line. Hapoel Holon held the advantage with a one-game lead on the Antwerp Giants and Telekom Baskets Bonn. Telekom pounded Armia early in the day, 77:102 to improve to 4-2 and assure themselves a spot due to winning the tie breaker with Antwerp by five points. With Antwerp beating Hapoel, 93:74 it sent the group into a three-way tie breaker. All three teams had 2-2 records against the other two teams, so the second tie breaker was goals for/goals against. Telekom wins that with 314:307, followed by Hapoel with 315:312, and Antwerp made a run at it with the big win on Tuesday, but had too much ground to make up and fell short at 311:321.
Group A
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Group B
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Group C
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Group D
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Group E
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Group F
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Group G
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Group H
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