Canadians in Europe: December 21st - 23rd

Basketball stops for nothing: even with Christmas Day on the horizon, there was still fixtures in Europe's major competitions to complete. The games featuring Canadian players were all high-scoring, but some very one-sided and others more precarious.

FIBA Champions League

In a rematch of the last fixture for both Zaragoza and Falco Szombathely, it was the Spanish club who had the better start to proceedings and reached a twelve-point lead in the second quarter. Falco’s close-court play closed the gap to just a point by half time, Jason Thompson led Zaragoza in holding on to their lead, which was constantly under threat.

Evan Bruinsma put Falco into the lead three minutes from time, Dylan Ennis and the rest of Zaragoza kept coming up short, the Hungarian hosts ended Zaragoza’s win streak, taking the win 94-86, with Ennis posting 18 points and 6 assists in the loss for the Spanish side.

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Phillip Scrubb and Kyle Wiltjer met once again for their respective clubs, Limoges and PTT Ankara, for a back-and-forth thriller in France. Neither team got more than eight points apart from the other, Limoges’ combination of long range and low-post play saw them lead at half time, before Ankara shrank the gap with their three-point shooting, restoring their slender advantage over the hosts.

After jostling for the lead throughout the fourth quarter, Ankara’s post-up play prevailed. The game still sat on a knife-edge, but six points in the last minute from the Turkish team sealed the win for them. Scrubb was Limoges’ leading scorer with 16 points while Wiltjer finished with 16 points and 8 total rebounds for Ankara in their 75-70 win on the road.

Euroleague

Kevin Pangos had 17 points for Zenit St Petersburg – second on the team behind KC Rivers – as they hosted Crvena Zvezda Belgrade at the Sibur Arena. After a twelve-point run at the end of the first quarter, Zenit were ahead 30-12 and Crvena Zvezda were at their mercy. Outshooting their visitors with 65% field goal success and sixteen three-point shots made, Zenit led from start to end, their biggest lead at the final buzzer, 98 to 69.

Dyshawn Pierre was the best off the bench for Fenerbahce, scoring 14 points in 23 minutes against Olympiacos. The Greek team powered ahead with seven three-pointers in the first quarter, but Fenerbahce struck back in the paint, their big man Jan Vesely leading the turn-around. Olympiacos trailed for the second half and had one chance to save the game, but only getting to within four points of their opponents, Fenerbahce prevailed with the win, 84 points to 77.