By Aris Barkas
The Eurochallenge is the third string club competition in Europe and that was more than evident. After an ugly win against Hungarian host team Szolnoki Olaj (64-60) Besiktas will play against Elan Chalon on Sunday’s final.
The French team beat Triumph Lyubertsy (84-69) in the best game of the day. It was a one man show from Loyola University alumni Blake Schilb who scored 20 point just in the first half, hitting 4/4 of his threes. The score at that point was 49-33 and the game was decided, as Triumph didn’t have any answers.
Besiktas won despite shooting in total just 31.5% in field goals (21/58) and former Olympiacos player Zoran Erceg with 17 points was the man of the match. On the other hand Szolnoki played with its heart, but that was almost everything the hosts had. Even the impressive Fonix Hall, located 140 klm away from the town Szolnok, was half empty and the Hungarian defeat will not help the attendance on Sunday. It seems that the complains of Elan Chalon about the decision of FIBA Europe to give the Final Four to Szolnoki have reason after all.
Elan Chalon – Triumph Lyubertsy 84-69
CHALON: Aminu 14 (10 r.), Delaney 9, Smith 4, Adjagba, Lang 5, Aboudou, Schilb 29, Evtimov, Tchicamboud 7 (7 as.), Jean Baptiste 4, Lauvergne 12
TRIUMPH: Jefferson 26, McKee 5, Karasev 9, Kuzyakin 9, Kulagin 6, Landry 14, Vikhrov, Slovevev, Valiev, Trifunovic, Andreev
Szolnoki Olaj – Besiktas Milangaz 60-64
SZOLNOKI: Horvath 10, Grebenar 2, Fodor, Gay 8, Nikolov 13, Trotter 7, Mills 9, Bader 11
BESIKTAS: Yagmur, Erceg 17 (9 r.), Cetin, Kemp 3, Arroyo 10, Hawkins 13, Dagli 8 (13 r.), Mensah–Bonsu 13