Canadians in Europe - November 12th-15th
Both women's competitions were on a break this week, but there was still plenty of action in the Euroleague and FIBA competitions with Canadian players in the thick of it. Here's the full recap:
Euroleague
Nik Stauskas had seven points off the bench for Baskonia, who saw the lead get further and further away from them as their visitors Maccabi Tel Aviv went ballistic on offence. Making nearly two thirds of their field goal attempts and dropping 17 three pointers as six players finished in double digits, Maccabi move to the top of the Euroleague standings after routing their hosts 113-83.
Meanwhile, Aaron Doornakemp scored four points for Valencia in their biggest win of the season so far, capping off their home game against Bayern Munich with a 23-9 run in the fourth quarter to finish by a margin of 82-56.
EuroCup
Malaga booked their place in the next round after dominating Gdynia in the field, with Melvin Ejim registering six points and seven rebounds off the bench as they won over their Polish visitors 91-69. At the same time, Joventut began the fourth quarter trailing by 24 points but got to within three points in the final minute, but missed attempts to tie fell short and Brescia got the win 87-83 in an increasingly heated Group C. Connor Morgan had just one basked in Joventut’s loss.
FIBA Champions League
The spotlight in the Champions League was on Kyle Wiltjer who had 33 points for PTT Ankara, who were on the back foot to visiting Oostende for the first half, but overcame their eight-point deficit at the end of the first half, dominating on offence to end the game ahead 72 points to 66.
Aaron Best had an amazing 19 points off the bench for PAOK against Brindisi, who were all tied up after the first two quarters, but PAOK overpowered their visitors in the decisive final period to win the game 95-91. Owen Klassen had just one point for the Antwerp Giants, who could not recover after falling 13 points behind to Wloclawek in the first quarter and ended up losing the game 80 to 71.
Thomas Scrubb was one rebound shy of a double-double for Strasbourg, finishing with 13 points and 9 rebounds, but even that was not enough for the French club to cut their heavy deficit against Dinamo Sassari. With Dyshawn Pierre contributing 13 points, Sassari were in the driver’s seat in a comfortable victory, 90-67.
FIBA Europe League
Kormend found themselves in a close contest with the Bakken Bears, which became increasingly tight in the second half, only for the Danish basketball superpower to put up the decisive points to secure victory. Justin Edwards had 16 points for Kormend in their 86-80 loss. Elsewhere, Levski led from start to end as they hosted Tsmoki Minsk and by as many as 14 points, at the end finishing in front 75-64, with six of those points contributed by Ryan Wright.
Picture: FIBA.com
