Canadians in Europe: January 11th - 15th

A packed week of basketball in Europe - including two Euroleague games for each team - made for plenty of work for the Canadian players currently plying their trade in the continent. There was never a dull moment, with each game either a high-scoring one or a close call which came down to the wire.

EuroCup

Conor Morgan had six points starting for Joventut on the road, but still in Spain, taking on Malaga in the first of the second round matches. Led on offence by Deon Thompson and Adam Waczynski, Malaga led throughout the second and third quarters, but in the final period Nenad Djmitrijevic put Joventut into the lead and the visitors responded each time that lead came under threat from Malaga. That edge saw them turn the game around and record their third straight EuroCup win, 95 points to 86.

Starting for Buducnost Podgorica, Melvin Ejim scored 14 points and grabbed 8 total rebounds while the visitors, JL Bourg en Bresse, saw 10 points from fellow Canadian Thomas Scrubb. After a close first quarter, the Montenegrin hosts went on to dominate for the game’s remainder; their high-percentage offence and ability to score from all distances saw them dominate proceedings en route to a dominant victory, 108-80.

---

FIBA Champions League

Philip Scrubb started and went on to finish with 10 points for Limoges, the French club seeing early struggles on the road to Igokea. The Bosnian club went ahead by double digits shortly after the start of the second quarter, later taking the biggest lead of the game of 12 in the third period. Limoges went ahead after a seven-point run to begin the fourth quarter and held their lead until the last two minutes of the game, when Igokea's Jackie Carmichael made a driving layup to tie the scores.

With time running out Scrubb handed the ball off to Nicolas Lang, who restored Limoges’ lead with a three-point shot, but that would not be enough. On the other end and with just seconds on the clock Carmichael and Edin Atic both made open-play and foul shots to finish the game with Igokea ahead 76-73.

Also on the road, Kyle Witljer scored 13 points for PTT Ankara, who found themselves on the back foot early against Hapoel Jerusalem. The home team took an early eight-point lead and maintained a comfortable lead for three quarters, but there was life in this game yet.

Their team trailing by double digits going into the fourth quarter, Wiltjer and Sam Dekker instigated the late attempt at a comeback for Ankara, Kamar Baldwin later tying the scores with 39 seconds on the clock. After attempts on both end to put the game to bed, Baldwin drew a foul from Hapoel's J’Covan Brown and with three seconds left made one of two free-throws, enough to bring proceedings to a close with Ankara heading back to Turkey with the dramatic victory, 78 points to 77.

Euroleague

In the first of Fenerbahce’s two games this week, they ended the first quarter ten points clear of Baskonia, leading by double digits throughout the second half and by as many as twenty-one points in the game. Dyshawn Pierre contributed six points in his team's twenty-point takedown of Baskonia.

Fenerbahce then went two for two with a second blowout win, the second time against Panathinaikos. The visitors from Greece fell behind early on, Fenerbahce winning the opening quarter 31-12 and continued this rampant offence to the game’s end. Pierre had just five points in this game, a 100-74 victory over Panathinaikos, which would be Fenerbahce's fifth straight win in their push to reach the playoff zone.

Kevin Pangos started the week with 17 points on the road for Zenit St Petersburg, who took an early lead against Bayern Munich, but later saw their eight-point advantage disappear in a heated, tension-riddled second half.

With he scores were tied at 75 apiece with 1:30 left in regulation, Vladimir Lucic gave Bayern the lead, he was followed by Arturas Gudaitis cutting the gap down to one for Zenit. With the final result on a knife-edge, Munich's heroes would be Wade Baldwin and Paul Zipser, both making the plays that would win the game for the hosts, the final score 82-80 in their favour.

Days later he scored six against Zalgiris Kaunas, Zenit and the Lithuanian club evenly matched throughout the first half, the scores level for much of the way. In the third quarter, Zenit outdid Zalgiris from inside the paint and, finding their rhythm, went on to lead by double-digits throughout the fourth. Zenit got back to winning ways with the 77-65 defeat of Zalgiris Kaunas, which sees them sitting comfortably toward the top of the Euroleague table.