Canadians in Europe: 23rd - 26th March

The EuroCup quarter finals are ongoing (Full report to follow) while plenty more continental basketball was to be had, including continuing action from the Euroleague and Champions League, while the FIBA Europe Cup moved to its next phase - within a week four of the last sixteen would win a place in the semi-finals, bringing them one step away from the final.

FIBA Champions League

Kyle Wiltjer had 5 points for PTT Ankara against Nizhny Novgorod, whose early lead grew to double-digits at the start of the second quarter and reached as high as 22 in the contest. Though the Turkish team did a decent job on offence to keep up, on defence they could not contain their Russian opposition – in particular Kasey Shepherd, who had 32 points off the bench in Nizhny Novgorod’s 96-82 win.

Canarias Tenerife had a hard time breaking away from Igokea, the Bonsian club quick to catch up whenever they fell behind and even went into the lead in the second quarter. It was late in the third when Tenerife stamped their authority following a 15-3 run. Igokea made a late push to try and save the game but did not do enough to prevent falling to their Spanish conquerors, 80-75.

Shooting 50% from three-point range, making two thirds of all field goal attempts and all players making the scoresheet, including Aaron Doornakemp with a solitary three-pointer, Canarias got the win which saw them jump to the top of Group J.

Dylan Ennis had 8 points for Zaragoza who saw the game against Bamberg start to get away from them in the second quarter. Too slow to enact a response, the German team’s lead became more and more unassailable as the game went on, with the missed shots piling up for Zaragoza. With five players in double digits and Michele Vitali adding 23 off the bench, Bamberg made short work of their Spanish opposition, dispatching them 117-76.

---

FIBA Europe Cup

In the knockout stage of the second-tier FIBA competition, Olivier Hanlan and Iraklis were first in in a back-and-forth round of sixteen match-up with Anwil Wloclawek: Iraklis’ early lead was quickly overturned by the Polish club’s long-range shooting, which saw them go up by nine points in the second quarter.

Iraklis catching fire from three-point range, coupled with their low-post scoring, saw them re-take the lead at the end of the third and go on to a nine-point advantage. Anwil tried twice to close the gap down the stretch, even going ahead by one, but in response Olivier Hanlan made the plays that returned the lead to Iraklis and sealed the final result.

Anwil had five players finish in double-digits, but top scorer Hanlan, who finished with 22 points, helped lead Iraklis to victory, 86-81, and to the quarter-finals. There they would face Ironi Ness Ziona, who built an early double-digit lead on a slow start from the Greek team. Hanlan and Devin Ebanks led the Iraklis offence in keeping the gap close but as the game went on, they found themselves overwhelmed by Ness Ziona in the paint.

With 33 points in the fourth quarter, in which they had the largest lead of the game at 27 points and at the end winning 105-80, Ironi cruised into the semi-finals at the expense of Iraklis. Hanlan bowed out of the competition with 14 points, behind Ebanks who finished with 19 along with 10 rebounds.

---

Euroleague

Scoring 15 points, Dyshawn Pierre was one of just two Fenerbahce players to score in double digits, along with Jan Vesely, in their latest Euroleague matchup against Olympiacos. The Turkish team heavily outscoring their hosts saw them mount a lead that reached 17 points and, despite 22 final quarter points, Olympiacos never caught up. Fenerbahce move closer to the post-season with their fourth win in the last five games, 76-71 over Olympiacos.

After trailing for the first quarter, Zenit St Petersburg went in front over Khimki in Q2 and their lead grew ever greater as the game progressed, eventually becoming insurmountable for their fellow Russian opposition. Kevin Pangos had 13 points for Zenit, which included a trio of three-point shots, part of thirteen total in the game for the team who made over half of all their field goal attempts. Winning comfortably 91-70, St Petersburg got back on winning form as the race for playoff places starts to hot up.