By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
“Dreamland” indeed. EuroCup reigning champion Gran Canaria had 62 points by halftime to blow out Ratiopharm Ulm 111 – 82 at home in Round 2 of the EuroCup regular season.
Ferran Bassas led five Gran Canaria players in double figures, scoring 21 points while Jovan Klazcic had 15 points and Jon Shurna dropped 14 points. The team had a stellar offensive game, finishing with 29 assists and shooting 29-37 2-pointers.
LJ Figueroa had 19 points and Dakota Matthias scored 17 for Ulm. The German side fell behind 62 – 36 at the break and couldn’t erase such a large margin despite raising the levels of its performance after halftime.
Earlier, Andres Feliz hit a floater at the buzzer to hand Joventut Badalona an 88 – 87 away win over Cedevita Olimpija in overtime. The game was quite thrilling overall and had an even more exciting finale in store since Justin Cobbs had given Cedevita the lead with two seconds remaining.
After the timeout by Badalona coach Carles Duran, Ante Tomic sent the inbounds pass to Feliz who managed to drive to the basket and finish the play quickly enough.
Feliz posted 12 points, five assists and five steals while DeShaun Thomas scored a team-high 23 points for Badalona. Cobbs delivered 28 points on near-perfect (12-13) shooting and would’ve been the absolute hero for Cedevit if not for Feliz’s game-winner.
TJ Shorts has taken it from where he left it last season in the Basketball Champions League. This time, the BCL MVP had 19 points and six assists to push Paris Basketball past Reyer Venezia on the road. He drained a key basket for the 70 – 75 and free throws that put his team up 73 – 78 with 19 seconds remaining.
Aamir Simms’ 28 points and 10 rebounds weren’t enough for Venezia.
Turk Telekom was held scoreless for the last 2:38 minutes of the game against Buducnost after going up 79 – 72 but the visiting side couldn’t take advantage of it. The Turkish team prevailed 79 – 77 and grabbed its first win this season.
Jalen Adams had 18 points for Turk Telekom while Brandon Paul dropped 19 points to pace Buducnost.
2023-24 BKT EuroCup Round 2 Results
Group A
Besiktas – Prometey 92 – 70
Hamburg Towers – London Lions 94 – 100
Cedevita Olimpija – Joventut Badalona 87 – 88
Reyer Venezia – Joventut Badalona 75 – 81
Hapoel – Tel Aviv – Wolves Vilnius (SUSPENDED)
Group B
Lietkabelis – Aris Thessaloniki 84 – 74
Dolomiti Energia Trento – JL Bourg en Bresse 72 – 79
Turk Telekom – Buducnost 79 – 77
Slask Wroclaw – Cluj Napoca 67 – 70
Gran Canaria – Ratiopharm Ulm 111 – 82
Standings
Group A
Paris Basketball 2 – 0
Besiktas 2 – 0
London Lions 2 – 0
Hapoel Tel Aviv 1 – 0
Badalona 1 – 1
Wolves Vilnius 1 – 0
Reyer Venezia 0 – 2
Hamburg Towers 0 – 2
Cedevita Olimpija 0 – 2
Group B
Gran Canaria 2 – 0
Bourg 2 – 0
Cluj 2 – 0
Buducnost 1 – 1
Lietkabelis 1 – 1
Turk Telekom 1 – 1
Ratiopharm Ulm 1 – 1
Trento 0 – 2
Slask 0 – 2
Aris 0 – 2
Photo: EuroCup Basketball