By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The race for the remaining six spots in the 2018-19 Basketball Champions League regular season kicked off today (20/9) with ten out of eleven duels in the Qualification Round 1.
AEK Larnaca’s William Davis scored the opening points in the new BCL campaign and went on to score 14 points but his team couldn’t take on Telenet Giants Antwerp who recorded an 83-74 victory behind Jae’Sean Tate’s 21 points.
The best performance without a doubt was the work of the 31-year-old forward Aaron Cel who led Polski Cukier Torun to an 87-61 win against Tsmoki-Minsk. He scored 27 points while adding six rebounds and four assists for a total value of 36, and with just one missed shot out of twelve from the field (4/4 three-pointers).
Torun, Aris and Z Mobile Prishtina are the closest teams to advance to the next round as they earned a 20+ points lead after Game 1. There was also a match without a winner as Fribourg Olympic and Avtodor Saratov played to an 89-89 tie.
The clash between Hapoel Tel Aviv and Spirou Charleroi will be played tomorrow (21/9) while Gameday 2 will start on September 22.
Results and top scorers:
AEK Larnaca – Telenet Giants Antwerp 74-83
(Tyrell Biggs 19 / Jae’Sean Tate 21)
Dinamo Tbilisi – Aris 64-90
(Reger Dowell 9 / Lefteris Bochoridis 18)
Karhu Basket – CSM CSU Oradea 87-84
(Michael Moser 20 / Kristopher Richard 20)
Polski Cukier Torun – Tsmoki-Minsk 87-61
(Aaron Cel 27 / Vitali Liutych 12)
Norrkoping Dolphins – Movistar Estudiantes 62-74
(Mikael Lindquist 20 / Victor Arteaga 12)
BC Siauliai – Lukoil Levski 79-91
(Ignas Vaitkus 14 / Deyan Toshkov Ivanov 25)
Z Mobile Prishtina – Donar Groningen 84-64
(A.J. Davis 25 / Shane Hammink 11)
Leicester Riders – Bakken Bears 77-90
(Deandre Burnett 24 / Hayden Matthew Dalton 17)
Fribourg Olympic – Avtodor Saratov 89-89
(Dusan Mladjan 24 / Jackie Carmichael 18)
FC Porto – Nizhny Novgorod 85-86
(William Sheehey 27/ Kendrick Perry 21)
Red October Cantu – Szolnoki Olaj 69-68
(Frank Gaines 19 / David Vojvoda 22)
Hapoel Tel Aviv – Spirou Charleroi 76-73
(Jonathan Holmes 12 / Cliff Hammonds 19)
Photo Credit: Basketball Champions League