By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Eurocup’s sixth round started with three games on Tuesday, as Lundwisburg, Bilbao and Gran Canaria earned impressive wins over their opponents. The action continues on Wednesday, when 15 games are scheduled to take place.
In Group B, Ludwisburg easily beat Alba Berlin 79-90 on the road, after a dominant first half (29-54) and completed a sweep of the German League rivals, with both squads having the same record (4-2).
The visitors outscored their opponents 14-31 and 15-23 in the first and second quarter, respectively, and had no problem to claim the victory. The hosts only managed to cut the deficit to 11 points at the end of the match (79-90), with a 28-15 run in the fourth quarter. For the winners, Brad Loesing scored 18 points, with three more players being in double digits, whereas Elmedin Kikanovic and Dragan Milosavljevic both had 18 points for the losing squad.
In group A, Bilbao was simply unstoppable against Nanterre in France and won the game by 31 points (52-83). Although they played without the American center Shawn James, who refused to travel to France, due to last Friday’s tragic incidents in Paris, the Spaniards were impressive on both ends of the floor and comfortably prevailed over their opponents.
In the first half, Bilbao took an 11-point lead at the end of the first quarter (9-20) and extended it to double digits after 20 minutes in the game (29-44). In the second half, nothing changed significantly, as the Spaniards continued to be dominant and easily retained their advantage to 20+ points until the end of the game (79-90). For the winners, who claimed their fourth win in the group, Clevin Hannah scored 20 points, as three more players were in double digits, whereas Mam Jaiteh had 12 points for the losing squad, which suffered its third defeat, with Tasmin Mitchell adding 11.
In the last game of the night, Gran Canaria was dominant in the third quarter (26-10) and easily beat Le Mans 77-62 at home. This was the fifth win for the Spanish team, whereas the French suffered their fifth defeat.
The match was a close derby in the first half (29-32), but a 26-10 run in the third quarter enabled the hosts to take a 13-point lead (55-42) and never look back. Nothing changed significantly in the last quarter (22-20) and the Spaniards claimed an easy win. For the winners, Alen Omic had 19 points and eight rebounds, while for the visitors Chris Lofton scored a game-high 23 points.