By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
ERA Nymburk made short work of Teksut Bandirma for the 86-72 win at the Kara Ali Acar Sport Hall on Tuesday night. The Game 2 victory marked a 2-0 sweep in the Basketball Champions League Round of 16 best-of-three series.
Martin Peterka scored all of his 11 points within three minutes in the second quarter pushing the visitors back to their double-digit lead. Powered by its deeper bench, his team refused to relinquish command thereafter.
“We knew they would come to fight and they did,” said the 25-year-old center tipping off the post-game press conference, “But we answered well. We are happy we are moving forward to the next round.”
Vojtech Hruban added a team-high 19 points, Zach Hankins went for 15 points and Hayden Dalton for 14. For Bandirma, 17-year-old Alperen Sengun posted a 25-point, 13-rebound double-double and Erkan Yilmaz racked up 16 points.
It looked like it from the solid regular season run, but Nymburk is officially among the top eight Champions League teams for the first time. Never before won a playoffs series in a couple of attempts in 2017 and 2018.
“We have to find more consistency in our game, but at the end of the day we won,” noted head coach Oren Amiel, “We will continue our journey in the BCL.”
Completing the two-game sweep advances Amiel’s side to the quarterfinals. The Czech Republic outlet will again hold the home-court advantage in its next best-of-three series against AEK.
The Greek club actually eliminated Nymburk by a one-point margin in the two-game series between the two clubs in 2018. One point marked elimination in 2017 as well but at the hands of Dinamo Sassari.
As for Hakan Demir’s team full of young and promising Turkish talent, its fourth BCL run is done. Financial issues and departing foreign players surely took their toll in the Round of 16.
“I want to thank the foreigners that helped us through the group stage and all the team,” the hosts’ head coach summed up, “The team deserved to go further. We finished earlier than we expected.”
Postgame press conference:
Photo Credit: Basketball Champions League