Eurocup: Russians, Turks and Spaniards smiled

By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net

Unics Kazan-Lokomotiv Kuban, Gran Canaria-Karsiyaka, Banvit-Paris Levallois, Khimki-Valencia will be the couples of Eurocup Quarterfinals after the end of Eighthfinals’ Game 2.

Few days after its huge win over F.C Barcelona in Liga ACB, Gran Canaria made something big again. Herbalife, beat for the second time in a week Cedevita 75-72 and together with Valencia, will be the two Spanish teams which continue in quarterfinals.

Banvit’s 13-0 run at the beginning of  fourth quarter of Game 1 broke the balance between the Turks and Roma not only in that game, but on the whole series. The Italians made their effort, by winning 66-56 but it was not enough. Banvit will be in the quarterfinals, because of its win (71-55) in Game 1. Rok Stipcevic was incredible (23p.). With a triple in the third quarter’s last minute he brought the margin to 14 (50-36). The Turks had the answers. They didn’ t allow the hosts to reach the magic number 17, and they smiled at the end.

Bojan Dubljevic (16p., 10r.) and Pablo Aguilar (14p.) were perfect near the basket, and Valencia had no problem against Bayern. The “bats” after their first easy win at home a week ago (80-58) strolled against Bayern on the road too (60-94) and with an aggregate score of 174-118 win their two game series.

Unics Kazan clinched a berth in the quarterfinals with a 75-72 victory over Cantu to win their two-game series with an aggregate score of 145-136. Unics will face the 2013 Eurocup champions of Lokomotiv Kuban in an all-Russian quarterfinal challenge. A 17-2 run late in the second quarter from Unics and Keith Langford (13p., 5r., 5as.) made the difference in a close finish.

Petteri Koponen made 6/8 three-pointers and 24 points in leading Khimki over Zenit 89-70 to seep their two-game series. Very good performances were also registered Tyrese Rice (15p.) and Sergey Monia (6p., 8r., 6as., 2st.).

Karsiyaka made history. The Turkish team advanced to the Eurocup Quarterfinals for the first time in club history by downing Lietuvos Rytas 97-81 at home.The sSeries was tied after Game 1, but Jon Diebler was ready for everything. He led the winners with 26 points. Add also the excellent game of Bobby Dixon (14p.) and D.J Strawberry (13p., 5as., 5st.).

After Karsiyaka, another Eurocup Quarterfinals’ cinderella is Paris Levallois which beat Turow Zgorzelec 87-78 in Poland. Paris swept the series, having Blake Schilb as best player (24p., 5as.).