MIES (Switzerland) - It's a do-or-die Play-In week for Karsiyaka, Maccabi Ramat-Gan, Saint-Quentin Basket-Ball, and Telekom Baskets Bonn.
Before catching up with Wednesday's action, let's take a look at 24 facts, stats, interesting notes, and domestic results for the four remaining Game 2s of the Play-Ins.
Promitheas Patras BC Vikos Cola (1) vs. Karsiyaka (0) - 18:30 CET
Promitheas Patras BC Vikos Cola have lost their last five home games in the BCL, trailing at halftime in each of those, more defeats than in their first 14 games on their own court (W10 L4); however, they have won their three Play-In games in the competition, including the first leg last week (81-77).
Karsiyaka have won two of their last three games played as the away team in the BCL after losing each of the previous 13. They won their last trip to Greece (71-59 v Kolossos this season) after losing the previous three.
Only La Laguna Tenerife (4.2) have allowed fewer steals from their opponents than Karsiyaka (5.4) in the BCL this season; consequently, Karsiyaka have allowed fewer points from turnovers than any other team in the league this season (11.0 per game).
Linos Chrysikopoulos (Promitheas) might play his 100th BCL game, only one player has previously reached that milestone (Tim Abromatis); he has scored fewer than 10 points in each of his last 18 BCL appearances and a total of only seven points in three games against Karsiyaka.
Daron Russell (Karsiyaka) has scored 15+ points in each of his last four BCL games, his best such run in the competition; he has also made exactly eight assists in each of his last two games after never reaching that total in any of his first 11 appearances.
Karsiyaka couldn't bounce back in the Turkish Basketball Super League either, losing to Turk Telekom Ankara 95-73; Promitheas, instead, stayed 3rd in the Greek League standings following the 106-96 home win over Aris with Wes Iwundu as the team's highest scorer with 21 points.
Maccabi Ramat-Gan (0) vs. Falco-Vulcano Szombathely (1) - 19:30 CET
Maccabi have won three of their seven BCL games despite leading at the end of the 3rd quarter in only one of those seven games; they have allowed 80+ points in six of their seven BCL games.
Falco-Vulcano Szombathely have won their last two BCL games, including the first leg of these Play-Ins (88-81) and in case of a win, they would equal their best winning runs in the competition, three straight wins that they managed to do three times before; however, they won their last road game (88-79 in Pallacanestro Reggiana) but are yet to win consecutive road games in the competition.
Szombathely are one of the four teams to have seen their bench units scoring more than 25 points in 100 percent of their BCL games this season (also Rytas, Tenerife & Unicaja) while Maccabi have the lowest average of points per game scored from the bench this season (17.7).
Kendale McCullum has scored a total of 57 points in his last three BCL games, only two points fewer than in his first seven appearances (59); he has grabbed 8+ rebounds in three of his last four games, including a personal-best of 10 last week in the first leg, after never reaching that total in any of his first six appearances.
Matt Tiby (Szombathely) scored 21 points last week against Maccabi, his first game with 20+ points in 19 BCL appearances; he has had an efficiency rating of at least 20 in each of his last two BCL games, as often as in his first 17 appearances.
What could end up being a historic week for Szombathely began with their 15th consecutive victory in the Hungarian League, beating Kormend on the road by 30 points (105-75); Maccabi can't complain either, as they're heading to Game 2 of the Play-Ins after their fourth straight win in the Israeli League, beating former BCL participant Bnei Herzliya 89-75.
Saint-Quentin Basket-Ball (0) vs. Galatasaray (1) - 20:00 CET
Saint-Quentin have lost five of their last six games in the BCL, including the first leg of these Play-Ins against Galatasaray (63-84), and each of their seven games in the competition have ended with a double-digit margin. They lost their last two home games despite leading at half-time on both occasions.
Galatasaray have won four of their last five games in the BCL, including the most recent two, and will attempt to win three games in a row for only the second time since the start of the 2022-23 season (W4 in December 2023-Janaury 2024). They have won each of their three games played in the Play-ins.
Saint-Quentin are the only team still in the competition yet to score 20+ two-pointers in a BCL game this season; therefore, they are the team with the lowest average of two-pointers made per game this season (15.6).
Giovan Oniangue (Saint-Quentin) has scored 10+ points in each of his last two BCL games, including 15 last week in the first leg, his first such run in the competition; three of the four BCL games where he scored 15+ points were against Turkish sides, including twice against Galatasaray.
Will Cummings (Galatasaray) has scored 10+ points in each of his last eight road games in the BCL (15.4 on average), including in each of his three trips to France in that run; Cummings has made exactly two steals in three of his last four BCL games.
Saint-Quentin will host Galatasaray with good spirit, coming off their 81-70 win in the LNB against former BCL participant SIG Strasbourg; the Turkish powerhouse, instead, suffered an Istanbul derby 99-87 defeat to Anadolu Efes despite James Palmer Jr.'s 27 points.
Pallacanestro Reggiana (1) vs. Telekom Baskets Bonn (0) - 20:00 CET
Pallacanestro Reggiana have won two of their three BCL meetings with Bonn, including last week despite trailing by 16 points at the end of the third quarter. However, they suffered their heaviest defeat in the BCL during the only previous time they hosted Bonn, 66-90 in December 2022.
Bonn have lost their last two BCL games but have not suffered more defeats in a row during a single season since losing their last three games of 2019-20. They have lost their last three road games in the BCL (excl. neutral venues), each by margins of at least 14 points.
Reggiana have made only 45.6 percent of their two-pointers in the BCL this season, the lowest accuracy among all teams, while Bonn are in the top three, with 59.1 percent.
Jaylen Barford scored 34 points in the first leg against Bonn, more than twice as many points as his previous personal best in the BCL (16 v Szombathely), and the second-best total for a player in a Play-In game (Braian Angola, 41 v UCAM Murcia in January 2023); it was the first time that a Reggiana player scored more than 26 points in a game in the competition and it was the best scoring total for any player against Bonn.
Phlandrous Fleming Jr (Bonn) has scored 23+ points in each of his last two BCL games after never reaching that total in any of his first five games; he has missed only one of his 22 free-throws attempts in the competition and none of his last 16.
Reggiana lived another thrilling night on the road during the weekend, losing 108-106 in Milan with Kwan Cheatham's 24 points out of 8-of-10 from deep; Darius McGhee and Phlandrous Fleming Jr scored 17 points a piece but couldn't prevent Bonn's 91-84 road defeat to Hamburg.