Bilbao improve to 2-0 behind floor general Ludvig Hakanson

 

BILBAO (Spain) - Surne Bilbao continued their impressive start to their 2022-23 season in the Basketball Champions League, racking up another one in the win column with an 80-66 wire-to-wire win over Bahcesehir College.

 

Turning point: Bilbao jumped out to a 19-9 lead after one quarter with Ludvig Hakanson leading the way with 7 points. Bilbao kept up the momentum, winning the second quarter again to take a 36-21 lead into the second half.

Bahcesehir rallied in the third quarter, cutting their deficit to as close as 48-45 in the final minutes of the quarter, but they still trailed 53-47. Bahcesehir's three-point deficit was as close as they would get, as Bilbao put the game away with a 27-point fourth quarter and led by as many as 20 points.

 

Game hero: Ludvig Hakanson just missed out on a double-double, finishing with 11 points, 9 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals on 4-of-8 shooting from the field. He has now scored in double figures in back-to-back BCL games for the first time in the competition (18 games played), while his 9 assists are also a personal-best in a BCL game. The Swedish point guard also only committed one turnover in his 28 minutes on the court.

Stats don't lie: Bilbao had a 46-27 advantage in points from the bench. Their top three scorers tonight - Adam Smith (17 points), Denzel Andersson (12 points) and Alex Reyes (12 points) - all came off the bench to combine for 41 of the 46 total bench points.

Bilbao's frontcourt of Andersson, Emir Sulejmanovic and Michale Kyser did their damage down low, helping the team to a 32-20 advantage in points in the paint.

 

Bottom line: Bilbao are now 2-0 and sit on top of Group D. The Spanish club will travel to face Igokea m:tel on Wednesday November 2.

Bahcesehir, meanwhile, fall to 1-1 in the group and were led in defeat by Jerry Boutsiele who finished with a balanced stat line of 12 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals. The Turkish club will also be on the road in their next game when they travel to face ERA Nymburk on Tuesday November 1. Teams from Turkey in the BCL have now lost 21 of their 24 away games against Spanish teams.

They said:

"We expected a difficult game. Bilbao is a very good team, very tough team. In the beginning of the game, we didn't execute our gameplan." - Erhan Ernak, head coach Bahcesehir College

"They played better than us, played harder. We played good in the third quarter, but we have to play 40 minutes. We have to learn from this, get better, they got a good team." - Vladimir Brodziansky, Bahcesehir College

"We played the first half with a good offensive rhythm. We played well especially after good defense in transition. ... The second half, we missed some shots. We controlled the score of the opposite team every quarter except the third quarter when we had problems with our defensive level." - Jaume Ponsarnau, head coach Surne Bilbao

"I think overall, it was a good game, everything but the last part of the third quarter. We had a good reaction in the fourth quarter when we got the advantage by 20 points. At the end, we played as a team, and we got an important victory at home with our fans against a good team." - Alex Reyes, Surne Bilbao