By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Veterans Marcelinho Huertas of Lenovo Tenerife and David Holston of Dijon, plus PAOK’s Kendall Smith, Hapoel Jerusalem’s Levi Randolph, and AEK’s Justin Tillman are the players selected for the Basketball Champions League team of the month.
Per the press release: There were plenty of standouts in the Basketball Champions League during November, with players from five different teams getting selected on the penultimate Team of the Month within 2023.
Lenovo Tenerife had a slow start to the season – at least by their standards. However, November saw them win five of their six games in all competitions, including a 2-0 record in the BCL behind the eternal Marcelinho Huertas.
The Brazilian magician paced the balanced offense with 12 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists against VEF Riga, then followed up with 21 points and 11 assists against Darussafaka Lassa.
In that game, Huertas became the first player to reach 500 career assists in the BCL, and at 40 years of age, he picked up his second 20 and 10 game in this competition.
If there was ever a perfect partner for Huertas in the team of the month, it would certainly be David Holston.
The 37-year-old point guard got to double digits in all four BCL games this season, leading JDA Bourgogne Dijon to their first ever 4-0 start to the season.
Holston took over in November, hitting Promitheas Patras with 25 points in 21 minutes, then delivering 16 points and 5 assists in 17 minutes against BK Opava.
He finished the month with 41 points in 38 minutes played, while shooting 9-of-12 from beyond the three-point line.
A surprise package among the group leaders after four games would be PAOK mateco.
They were already in fine form in October, but with the addition of Kendall Smith in November, they climbed to 2-0 for the month and 3-1 for the season, leading a tough group that includes the likes of Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem, Galatasaray EKMAS and SL Benfica.
Smith was the key man in two close wins over Jerusalem and Benfica -so close were those games that PAOK’s combined win margin was four points. He had 16 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists against Hapoel, 13 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists against Benfica.
If PAOK don’t end up in first place in that group after six games, it would most probably be because of Levi Randolph.
Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem’s leader took on a whole new role this season, and is delivering performances to remember for a long time as Hapoel climbed to 3-1.
Randolph played all four games this month wearing his Mr Consistency cape with 20, 18, 19 and 17 points, respectively.
Over the last three games (against SL Benfica, PAOK mateco and Galatasaray EKMAS, respectively) he had three 15+ point, 5+ assist performances. Impressive, because he never had that statline in any of his previous 64 games in the BCL.
Finally, the man in the middle comes from an undefeated 4-0 AEK BETSSON BC team. Justin Tillman has grown into a fan favorite in Athens, and it was of no surprise whatsoever for anybody who watched him play in Italy, Turkey and Israel previously.
Tillman enjoys his roles as a starter or coming off the bench for coach Joan Plaza.
AEK swept the Polish champs King Szczecin in the two November games, and Tillman contributed 16.0 points and 9.0 rebounds in 22.5 minutes per game, while shooting 11-of-19 from the field.