Canadians in Europe: November 27th-29th
Both women's competitions resumed while the EuroCup and Champions League had a bye week, but there was still plenty of basketball still to be seen in Europe, including the last games of the FIBA Europe Cup, after which the surviving teams will learn their second-round opponents.
Here's all the action seen from Canadian players:
Euroleague
A joint team-high 12 points from Nik Stauskas (shared with Youssoupha Fall) was a small crumb of comfort for Baskonia, who were routed on the road against Panathinaikos in the Greek capital. The visitors from Spain were no match for the home team, who dominated in this week's game, winning 100-68. Elsewhere, Aaron Doornakemp had three points and rebounds for Valencia in a tight game with Crvena Zvezda which ended in dramatic fashion courtesy of a buzzer-beating three pointer from Lorenzo Brown:
Euroleague Women
In the all-French match-up between Lyon ASVEL and Lattes-Montpelier, Michelle Plouffe posted four points and rebounds for visiting ASVEL, who overcame from a double-digit deficit in the first half to make proceedings much tighter down the stretch, but lost their momentum in the final minutes. Lattes-Montpelier secured victory 80 points to 73.
At the same time, Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe started and posted six points for Nadezhda on their visit to the Czech capital to take on USK Praha - and they felt the home advantage hard. Five of the seven players who saw playing time for Praha finished in double digits, a big part in their dominant victory over Nadezhda, 87-63.
EuroCup Women
Landes did not look back after opening with an 18-0 run over Hungarian club Pecs and limiting them to 14 points in the first half, while they had scored 42. Miranda Ayim scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds while 7 points was Katherine Plouffe's contribution in Landes' resounding 83-48 victory. Meanwhile, Brno picked up their second in a row over Botas SK, who led for much of the first half, but superior play in the field at the death helped them see out the win 80 points to 75. Emily Potter contributed one basket in the game.
FIBA Europe Cup
Kormend qualified for the second round despite a game-six loss to Kataja at the end of a back-and-forth final Group H game in Finland. Though they did well to close the gap after going 14 points down and saw 14 points from Justin Edwards, Kormend lost out 95-91. They qualify for the next stage as runners up in the group and will face Ventspills, Kwolle and Kiev when the competition resumes.
Levski needed a big win over Dnipro to have any hope of making the second round, and looked good after taking a 27-point lead in the first half - but even though they went on to win 83-61, it wouldn't be enough, as the other results did not go their way. Ryan Wright had four points in Levski's last game of this year's Europe Cup.
Picture: FIBA.com
