Canadians in Europe: 14th - 18th December
With Euroleague teams playing two games, a lot of basketball went ahead in European competition across the week, where Canadian teams suited up and made a difference for teams in the EuroCup and Champions League as well.
EuroCup
Starting for JL Bourg-en-Bresse, Thomas Scrubb posted 11 points in a screamer with Partizan Belgrade. After a really tight start the Serbian team pulled away, taking an eight-point lead that JLB cut down more and more until just a point stood between the teams just before half time. Partizan were able to keep their noses in front throughout the third, but the French team went in front for the first time thanks to a three from Scrubb with six minutes to go.
After an 8-0 run from Partizan the scores were tied ahead of the final minute and, after a number of missed attempts on both ends, Scrubb put up a shot at the final buzzer that won the game for Bourg-en-Bresse - and in dramatic style.
Melvin Ejim had 10 points in the all-Montenegrin derby between his Buducnost Podgorica and the visiting Mornar Bar. The familiarity between the teams showed in the first half, where there was no more than five points between the teams. Midway through the game, though, Mornar Bar went thirteen points in front of their foes and held on to that advantage until the end, when Buducnost made it a two-point game. In the last two minutes Taylor Smith increased Mornar Bar's advantage, resigning Buducnost to the loss, final score 84-78 against them.
Conor Morgan had just five points for Joventut in an eventful match-up with the visiting UNICS Kazan. The biggest gap between the teams was eight points, though it was largely a single-possession game throughout - led by Nenad Dimitrijevic, that lead was Joventut's. Kazan saw a great three-point shooting show from John Holland, who came off the bench to put up five from beyond the arc on his way to a team-best 20 point performance. It would not be enough to alter the final result, 84-77 to the home side.
Euroleague
Hosting Bayern Munich, Zenit St Petersburg fell behind early on and eventually let their visitors create a twelve-point gap deep into the third quarter. They showed great resolve to turn the game around: following an 11-0 run they tied the scores in the fourth quarter while Bayern lost their nerve at flatlined right when they didn't want to. Kevin Pangos contributed seven points in an impressive 79-75 last-minute win for his club.
Next up Zenit stayed in Russia but played away to CSKA Moscow in a sorry follow-up: after a closely-match start to the game, CSKA's three-point shooting saw them pull away and their lead grew and grew the longer the game went on. Kevin Pangos had a team-high 14 points for Zenit, who never found their rhythm against CSKA, who won their ninth straight Euroleague game and going to the top of the table, defeating Zenit 83 to 65.
In the first of Fenerbahce's two fixtures this week, Dyshawn Pierre led everyone in the game with 16 points at home against Olimpia Milano. Despite being evenly matched on the stats sheet, Milano were in control after taking the lead at the end of the first quarter. Fenerbahce kept up the chase and won the fourth quarter 23 points to 11, but it couldn't win them the game, the final score 79-71 in Milano's favour.
It was a better game than the follow-up days later: on the road to Zalgiris Kaunas, they scored just 7 first quarter points to Zalgiris' 24. Pierre managed just six points in the entire game. The Lithuanians were on fire from beyond the arc - hitting sixteen threes - and left no room for error. Giving Fenerbahce no chance to mount a comeback, Zalgiris went on to win 99 points to 62.
FIBA Champions League
For Zaragoza, Dylan Ennis was the top rebounder for the team with eight total boards to go with a joint team-best 14 points (Shared with Robin Benzing) as the Spanish club hosted Falco Szombathely all the way from Hungary. Zaragoza had the better start and finish, building a double digit lead in the first quarter, later maintaining that lead throughout the closing period, in between leading by as many as twenty.
Despite Falco seeing 21 points from Evan Bruinsma and a double-double (17 points, 10 rebounds) from Zoltan Perl, Zaragoza had one foot in the win column early on and held their form to the end with the final score 85-76 in their favour.
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