FIBA Europe Cup: Group O preview

MUNICH (FIBA Europe Cup) - Pau-Lacq-Orthez stand out as the lone Regular Season group winner in Group O of the FIBA Europe Cup, as the three remaining teams in the group qualified to the Second Round as runners-up.

With only one team per group advancing to the Round of 16 directly, that might, on paper, put the French side in an advantageous position, but Alba Fehervar, U-BT Cluj-Napoca and BK Pardubice will be out to prove these assumptions wrong.

Pau-Lacq-Orthez (1st in Group E, 4-0)

The real FIBA Europe Cup season for the Elan Bearnais club starts now, as the French side registered four lopsided victories against Redwell-Gunners Oberwart and Tartu in the preliminary round to finish the Regular Season not only as winners of Group E, but also as one of only two undefeated teams in the entire competition.

Pau-Lacq-Orthez confirmed their status as one of the tournament favourites by winning all four games by double-digit margins in the region between 15 and 21 points.

The closest game for coach Eric Barthecky came on the road in Austria, where Elan Bearnais beat Redwell-Gunners 81-66 in what still was a fairly one-sided affair. The game in Oberwart also stands out due to the fact that D.J. Cooper set a new competition season high with 16 assists.

Much of what the French team likes to do offensively revolves around the pass-first American playmaker, who is currently on record-breaking pace with 12.7 assists per game.

When it comes to scoring, however, it is all about Antywane Robinson, who leads the team with 14.8 points per game, and Ron Lewis who has been contributing with 13.5 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game.

The bad news for coach Barthecky is that Lewis will likely miss most of the Second Round after falling victim to a back injury that will keep him out of rotation for around seven weeks.

The injury, combined with the departure of back-up point guard Ronald Howard, leaves Pau-Lacq-Orthez’s backcourt extremely thin until a replacement is found.

There are less worries in regards to the frontcourt players, with Alain Koffi, Vitalis Chikoko, and Jean Mipoka-Likamba all enjoying solid seasons both in the FIBA Europe Cup and in the French LNB Pro A.

Alba Fehervar (2nd in Group A, 4-2)

Alba Fehervar looked set to finish first in Group A, barring a big loss against Elan Chalon in the last game of the Regular Season. However, that is exactly what happened, as the Hungarian side slumped to a 106-77 defeat on the road in France.

Having won the first meeting between the sides by 20 points, the Fehervar team ceded the top spot to Elan Chalon due to a worse head-to-head point differential and consequently landed in a very tough Group O in the Second Round.

The big loss in Chalon-sur-Saone has been the only real blemish in an otherwise excellent season. The team’s only other defeat in the FIBA Europe Cup came against SL Benfica in overtime.

Even taking into account the tough opposition, by no means will the Hungarian side be an underdog in their Second Round group, as coach Branislav Dzunic has a well-rounded roster at his disposal.

Offensively, the team’s game is centred around Justin Edwards, who is averaging 17.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.8 steals per game while shooting a stellar 59.2% from the field and 46.2% from three-point range.

Hungarian veteran Peter Lorant is still getting the job done, averaging 14.8 points and 6.0 rebounds, James Farr scores 12.0 points and grabs 5.2 boards per game, while Winston Shepard chips with 10.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.3 assists.

U-BT Cluj-Napoca (2nd in Group G, 5-1)

U-BT Cluj-Napoca qualified to the Second Round as the second seed of Group G after splitting wins with eventual group winners Gaziantep, but losing the head-to-head match-up.

Having won the road game in Turkey by a single point, the Romanian side led the standings for much of the Regular Season, but could not defend their home court, when Gaziantep visited Romania, losing 79-72 in a packed Hori a Demian Sports Hall.

The preliminary stage was not as easy for Cluj-Napoca as the 5-1 record might suggest, with the Romanian side winning only one game, a 99-76 triumph against KB Peja, by double figures. But other wins cost coach Mihai Silvasan quite a few nerves.

U-BT Cluj-Napoca relied on its defence perhaps more than other team in the competition, allowing opponents to score only 72.0 points per game, one of the best marks in the FIBA Europe Cup.

Despite modest team numbers offensively, which put Cluj-Napoca 25th in the league in scoring at 77.5 points per game, the team does have some potential on that end of the court with a three-man backcourt in Filip Adamovic, Kyndall Dykes and Aleskandar Rasic playing alongside more than capable big men Vlad Moldoveanu and Ousmane Barro.

Defeating Vlad-Sorin Moldoveanu and @ubtcluj? Well, not in their 🏠! #FIBAEuropeCup pic.twitter.com/J1dYwRNysf

— FIBA Europe Cup (@FIBAEuropeCup) November 4, 2016

Dykes is the team’s leading scorer at 16.0 points per game, but most of the offense runs through Adamovic, who is averaging 14.0 points, 5.2 assists and 1.7 steals per game.

Moldoveanu is racking up 13.2 points and 7.5 rebounds per game on red-hot 52.2% shooting from three-point range, while Barro, who is averaging 11.2 points and 6.7 boards, compliments his Romanian teammate well by playing closer to the basket.

BK Pardubice (2nd in Group J, 4-2)

A gutsy performance in the final weeks of the Regular Season allowed BK Pardubice to qualify to the Second Round as the second seed from Group J despite clearly being on the outside lane before the final stretch.

Their main rivals for second place, APOEL, seemed to have taken the edge after swinging the head-to-head tie-breaker in their favour with a 99-90 win at home in Nicosia, but it was the Czech side that got the last say.

Pardubice pulled off a surprise in Minsk by upsetting the previously undefeated Tsmoki and booked a place in the next phase of the competition ahead of schedule, and went on to finish the Regular Season on a high note by registering another win against Siauliai.

Throughout the preliminary round, the duo of Lamb Autrey and Dominez Burnett was the most dangerous scoring partnership in the entire league, averaging 20.2 and 20.0 points respectively. Audrey, the team’s primary ball-handler, also added 5.7 rebounds and 7.0 assists per game.

Sharpshooting big man Joseph Wall was the team’s third option on offence, scoring 14.7 points and grabbing 3.5 boards per game, while averaging 3.2 three-pointers on 48.7% shooting from long-range.

Kamil Svrdlik was the only other Pardubice player to reach double digits in scoring with averages of 10.7 points and 4.3 rebounds per contest.

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