By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The Basketball Champions League Play-Ins still have one clash left but the winner will have to catch up later on as the Roud of 16 is not waiting and will begin this week with five games.
It will be a mixed week when it comes to the schedule as Prometey and Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem are to play Game 2 of their best-of-three Play-In clash. The Israelis won the first game rather convincingly 95-70.
Meanwhile, the Round of 16 starts off with five instead of seven games. The duels between BAXI Manresa and Nutribullet Treviso, as well as Galatasaray Nef and Hapoel U-NET Holon, have been postponed to a later date due to the COVID-19 protocols.
That leaves only Group L with a full program, as Rytas Vilnius awaits SIG Strasbourg while Lenovo Tenerife travels to Falco Szombathely’s doors.
Rytas has been on an amazing 14-game winning streak until Zalgiris stopped them but they will without a doubt keep the confidence going into the game against Strasbourg which has been on an up-and-down rout recently.
Tenerife is a favorite in most of the duels in BCL and traveling to Hungary doesn’t change that. However, Falco has been a tough customer at home and given they will be able to draw energy from the crowd, there might be room for an upset.
The rest of the games are arguably even more interesting. In Group K, Unicaja will clash with Cluj U-BT Napoca as the Spanish powerhouse tries to put the fiery newcomers in their place. It will be a good test for Cluj if they have what it takes to aim for the top.
In Group J, an all-Turkish derby awaits between Tofas and Darussafaka. Dacka had an excellent but tiresome week during which they beat the likes of Fenerbahce and Galatasaray on the domestic front and managed to take out the BCL back-to-back champions.
However, Tofas was the team awaiting them in the Turkish league after that and they were the winning team with an 81-65 score. The rematch, just a couple of days later, will be all the more interesting with that in mind.
Last but not least, MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg will host JDA Dijon in Group I. The Germans have established themselves as a title contender with a dominant display in the regular season but Dijon is an experienced team that has already seen the BCL playoffs. Both teams won four out of their last five games across all competitions.
Schedule (CET)
January 25
Tofas – Darussafaka 18:00
Falco Szombathely -Lenovo Tenerife 18:00
Unicaja – Cluj U-BT Napoca 20:30
January 26
Rytas Vilnius – SIG Strasbourg 18:30
MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg – JDA Dijon 20:00