Canadians in Europe: January 5th - 8th

New year, new European basketball for the top Canadian imports into the Euroleague and Champions League. It was a week of contrast for the Canada-centric fixtures, some being one-sided, the others very close contests. Here is this week's run down of all the European action seen by Canadian players:

Euroleague

Kevin Pangos was perfect from the field for Zenit St Petersburg, finishing with 18 points, the second-highest scorer against Panathinaikos behind his team mate Arturas Gudaitis, who had 25.

The Greek club’s struggles continue into the new year, falling behind to Zenit by as many as twenty-five points in the second half, Eleftherios Bochoridis and Nemanja Nedovic cut the gap down for Panthinaikos, but there was too much distance to make up for the hosts. The victory was always going to be St Petersburg’s, they triumphed comfortably 89 points to 77.

On the road at Belgrade, Dyshawn Pierre came off the bench to put up the joint-best scoring show for Fenerbahce, he and Lorenzo Brown both contributing 13 points against Crvena Zvezda. There was little to choose between the teams in a game with nine lead changes throughout; Fenerbahce had more open looks for close range but the Serbian club making up the difference from the three-point line. The teams were never further apart than six points in the contest.

With a point between the teams in the last 1:30, the point being Fenerbahce’s, Dejan Davidovic sank a three to put Crvena Zvezda in front. Pierre then drew a foul from Aleksa Radanov, tying the game after converting both awarded free-throws. At the final buzzer Nando De Colo got control of the ball and handed it off to Lorenzo Brown who made the final shot of the game at the final buzzer.

FIBA Champions League

Tenerife saw seven of their players finish in double digits when they hosted Dinamo Sassari on Wednesday, though Aaron Doornakemp was not one of them. After letting Sassari begin the game with a 7-0 run, the Spanish club went on the warpath, building a lead of thirteen points by the end of the opening quarter, a lead which continued to grow as the game went on.

With Sassari seemingly running out of steam at the end, Tenerife sank the final dagger which saw them end the game thirty points in front, securing their place in the next phase of competition after a final, exceptional result of 115 points to Sassari's 85.

Dylan Ennis started and scored 22 points while also handing out a team-high seven assists for Zaragoza as they travelled to Russia to take on Nizhny Novgorod. The hosts ended the first quarter ahead 30 points to 23 and would lead their visitors for the next two periods of play, until three minutes from time when Robin Benzing put Zaragoza into the lead.

What followed were six more lead changes, at the end of which a dunk from Ennis put Zaragoza ahead by three. Not long after Artem Komolov sank a shot from beyond the arc to tie, which required an overtime period to decide the winner. Zaragoza dominated the extra period, holding Nizhny Novgorod to just six points while they ran home to complete the hotly contested road win, the final result 98-92 in their favour.