By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The field of the upcoming Basketball Champions League Final 8 will be completed tonight with two big games. In Spain, Iberostar Tenerife will host Filou Oostende and in France, JDA Dijon will play against Nizhny Novgorod for the last two Final 8 tickets.
The obvious favorites are the hosts, but with roster changes on all four contenders, anything may happen. So, here’s the story so far.
IBEROSTAR TENERIFE vs. FILOU OOSTENDE 1-1
Tenerife will not have injured Dejan Todorovic (ACL) and Santi Yusta (ACL), however, a roster that includes Giorgi Shermadini and Marcelinho Huertas remains more than capable to get to the Final 8.
Plus Tenerife has won seven of the eight BCL Play-Offs games they have played at home. Their only defeat was at the hands of fellow Spanish side UCAM Murcia, 83-72 in 2018.
Huertas is leading the league with 129 assists and if he can get to 143 before Tenerife’s 2019-20 campaign is over he will surpass Jordan Theodore for most assists in a single BCL season. Theodore had 142 assists in the 2016-17 season.
Οn the other hand, Oostende’s three leading scorers are no longer on the team.
Braian Angola, Shevon Thompson, and MiKyle McIntosh are not in the roster anymore and the duo of Thomas Welsh, who is coming off an excellent season in the G League, and Belgian international Pierre Antoine Gillet must produce.
JDA DIJON vs. NIZHNY NOVGOROD 1-1
Nizhny’s newly-arrived power forward Luke Petrasek will be sidelined through injury for at least another two months and that’s an issue against Dijon which has won six of their last eight home games in the BCL, after winning only two of their previous seven home games in the competition.
Nizhny on the other hand has lost all three road games they have played in the BCL Playoffs, by an average margin of 12.7 points.
David Holston remains the guard to watch for the French side, even if key members from last season Rasheed Sulaimon, Richard Solomon, and Lamont Ulmer have not returned.
The Russian side also has lost a lot of solid contributors as Brandon Brown, Darrlyn Willis, Terell Parks, and Pavel Antipov have departed the club, so nobody knows what to expect in a do or die game.
The two series are tied at 1-1 and both games start at 20.30 CET and you can watch them also via YouTube & Facebook (geo-restrictions may apply)