FIBA Europe Cup: Group M preview

MUNICH (FIBA Europe Cup) - Telekom Baskets Bonn and Vytautas Prienai-Birstonas tower as the favourites of Group M in the FIBA Europe Cup Second Round, but Austrian rebels Redwell-Gunners Oberwart and APOEL Nicosia from Cyprus have defied the odds enough times already to be overlooked.

Having triumphed in three-team Group C and Group I respectively, Telekom Baskets and Vytautas, have been one of the more dominant teams in the competition, while Austrian and Cypriot sides snuck into the second phase of the FIBA Europe Cup somewhat unexpectedly.

Telekom Baskets (1st in Group C, 3-1)

Telekom Baskets played a near-perfect Regular Season, winning three games out of four to claim the Group C crown. In fact, the possibility of the Bonn club even finishing the group undefeated wasn't that far from fruition, but a disastrous second-half collapse in Sweden saw Predrag Krunic's side throw away a 25-point advantage and fall to the Sodertalje Kings.

Although the defeat will not have added any confidence, it does seem that the German club has rebounded from a momentary shock with a victory against Belfius Mons-Hainaut in the last round of action as well as three wins in the last four games in the domestic championship.

Josh Mayo has stepped up for Bonn in the FIBA Europe Cup, averaging a team-high 15.8 points and adding 4.0 assists per game, while Ken Horton, who missed the start of the season due to an injury, has also been playing well since his return with averages of 12.7 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.7 steals.

Telekom Baskets have a packed frontcourt, with Horton sharing minutes with Ojars Silins, Filip Barovic, Ryan Thompson all of whom have been terrific this season.

Despite playing under 20 minutes per game, Barovic has been exceptionally effective, scoring 11.5 points in limited playing time. Same could be said about Thompson, who is averaging 11.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 21 minutes per game.

Meanwhile, Silins, who arrived to Bonn as a temporary replacement to Horton, earned himself a full-time deal by averaging 11.2 points per game in the Regular Season.

When it comes to the backcourt, coach Krunic will just have to hope Mayo delivers until either the injured Konstantin Klein is back in rotation or a replacement is found in the free agent market.

Vytautas Prienai Birstonas (1st in Group I, 3-1)

There was no team better than Vytautas on offence in the FIBA Europe Cup, with the Lithuanian side finished the Regular Season not only by winning Group I, but also leading the league in points, rebounds and assists, as well as quite a few other categories.

Virginijus Seskus has long had the reputation of an offensive-minded coach and his team proved these assumptions to be correct by hitting the century mark in two of their four games and being the only side in the competition to average triple digits in scoring at exactly 100 points per game.

The Lithuanian club is responsible for three of the biggest winning margins this season, hammering TLU/Kalev at home and away, by 43 and 41 points respectively, and flattering BC Mures to the ground in Prienai by 38 points.

However, Vytautas finished the Regular Season with a 3-1 record, picking up a 109-101 loss in the return game in Romania against Mures. With the high-scoring nature of the contest, it would not be fair to say they took their foot off the gas pedal. However, they did lack the defensive focus they had demonstrated in previous three games, during which they had allowed only 177 points combined.

It is hardly a surprise that seven players on the roster average double digits in scoring, with Vytenis Cizauskas leading all players with more than one game under their belt with 14.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game. Mindaugas Kupsas averaged 13.8 points, while veteran guard and former Lithuania international Tomas Delininkaitis chipped in with 13.7 points and 5.7 assists per game.

No matter how you slice it, the Regular Season could be described as a cakewalk for the Prienai-Birstonas club, but it is unlikely that things will be as easy for Vytautas in the Second Round against more challenging opponents.

Redwell-Gunners (2nd place in Group E, 2-2)

No one thought the Redwell-Gunners Oberwart stood a chance of triumphing in the Austrian Basketball Bundesliga last season. But they did. The extremely young and inexperienced side was not named among the favourites to advance to the Second Round in the FIBA Europe Cup, but the Austrian side defied the odds once again by finishing second in Group E.

Although neither of the games against group winners Elan Bearnais were particularly close, Redwell-Gunners got their job done against Tartu, topping the Estonian club twice to claim a ticket to the next stage of the competition.

Having won the first game on the road 79-78 on a pair of clutch free-throws by Derek Jackson, the Austrian side triumphed 79-76 at home in Oberwart, with the 25-year-old American playmaker, the oldest player on the roster, scoring a game-high 21 points.

In all four games combined, however, it is Andell Cumberbatch who leads the team in scoring with 18.0 points, 5.2 rebounds and an impressive 3.0 steals per game. Jackson averages 16.5 points, 5.5 assists and 2.5 steals, while Christopher McNealy chips in with 12.0 points and 4.2 boards per game.

For most of the players on the team, this is the first international season and while they handled Regular Season challenges without wavering, the team's play-caller Chris Chougaz will be faced with tougher opposition in the Second Round.

Although there won't be any pressure on the Redwell-Gunners, they will need to up their game if their plans include not only gaining valuable international experience, but also going even further in the competition, as the Austrian club ranked 33rd in points and rebounds and dead last in assists among all 37 teams in the preliminary stage of the competition.

APOEL (3rd in Group J, 3-3)

APOEL had to hold their breath waiting for results from other arenas to come through for a couple of hours after losing their final Regular Season game against Tsmoki in Minsk that saw the Cypriot side drop to third place in the Group J standings.

However, coach Dimitrios Koustenis and his players could afford to breathe a sigh of relief when all was said and done, with the 3-3 record combined with a solid point differential proving enough to grab one of the four places reserved for the best third-placed teams.

Βίντεο από τους πανηγυρισμούς #apoel #apoelbasket pic.twitter.com/ybTMZPy3k5

— APOEL Official Feed (@apoelcomcy) November 24, 2016

The athletic and versatile forward Akeem Wright is the team's top scorer with an average output of 19.0 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.5 steals, Murphy Burnatowski has been an excellent floor-stretcher at the power forward position with 14.8 points on 50% shooting from downtown and 4.5 boards, while playmaker Theron Bussey adds 14.2 points, 3.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game.

Robert Brown and Brandon Mobley are also among the players who are in the double-figure zone, with the rest of the squad providing little offence. Currently, there are only 10 players on the APOEL roster, so the majority of the scoring duties rest on the five foreigners.

The Cypriot side is slightly below average offensively at 78.7 points per game, but make up for it on the defensive end, where they rank 6th among all teams in blocks (3.3) and 8th in steals (8.5).

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