MIES (Switzerland) - There was no shortage of drama throughout the six Gamedays in Group F of the Regular Season. In the end, it was the Lithuanian champions who claimed the top spot.
Rytas Vilnius will move straight to the Round of 16 now, while Falco-Vulcano Szombathely and Pallacanestro Reggiana have to compete in the Play-Ins in January. WKS Slask Wroclaw finished their BCL season in December.
One-way street in Poland
Coach Giedrius Zibenas knew his team had a chance of winning the group, so he demanded a strong start from his players. He got it, before WKS Slask Wroclaw knew what hit them, Rytas Vilnius were already enjoying a 10-0 lead.
They remained in front of the Polish team for the rest of the game, getting the biggest lead at +15, and surviving all the hosts' attempts to get within reach, winning the game 98-88.
"We got five wins in a row, it's not easy to do that in the BCL. We aren't going to stop. We know that our opponents will get stronger and stronger. From this game I do believe our team is much better defensively. Overall, we took a well-deserved win and I'm happy for our fans with us tonight," coach Zibenas said.
We warned you about Azuolas Tubelis in our BCL Fantasy Tips this week, and the reigning Lithuanian League MVP had a big game on the road, picking up 16 points and 8 rebounds in 21 minutes of action.
Ignas Sargiunas was also influential and out of nowhere, too, as he had 6 points total in his first three BCL games, and then got 14 points in this one, hitting a pair of three-pointers.
Steven Enoch scored 17, RJ Cole had 13 with 9 assists, while Gytis Masiulis and Margiris Normantas had 11 apiece. All ten players scored for Rytas.
Slask signed out with Jeremy Senglin and Emmanuel Nzekwesi both scoring 19.
Close encounter in Italy
Pallacanestro Reggiana were close to completing the sweep over Rytas Vilnius on Gameday 5, which would've promoted them to hot favorites to reach the Round of 16. Instead, they lost the overtime game there, and then found Falco-Vulcano Szombathely speeding in their rear-view mirrors on Gameday 6.
The Hungarian champions won the first matchup at home, which meant they would've taken the second spot with a win in Italy, too. It did not look like a possibility as Reggio Emilia opened up a 17-point lead early in the second quarter, but Zoltan Perl and Nikola Popovic created a comeback which saw Falco take the lead before the break.
Even after the hosts had another run in the third quarter, coach Milos Konakov found a way to calm his guys and get the job done defensively.
They slowed Reggiana down completely, while Perl got a new running mate in Benedek Varadi, who made three gigantic three-pointers to put the game out of the Italians' reach. It finished 88-79.
"We had a very good start, we had a very good approach, but this was only for eight minutes and then unfortunately we had the symptoms of arrogance. We had a lack of effort, this was obvious from the rebounds, maybe this was the first game where we had lower rebounds. This lack of effort in combination with some symptoms of individual basketball, which is not the way to win this type of game, got us in this situation," Reggiana coach Dimitris Priftis was not choosing words after the defeat.
Perl was once again the top scorer for the Hungarian champions, 22 points off the bench for the talisman leader of the team.
Popovic scored 17, Matt Tiby 16, while Akos Keller and Varadi had 11 each, with Varadi dishing out 11 assists, too.
Cassius Winston led the hosts with 22 points and 9 assists, while Kenneth Faried had 5 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks in his first ever BCL game.
Rytas Vilnius are now moving to the Round of 16 Group J, alongside the defending champions Unicaja. Two other group members will arrive from the Galatasaray vs Saint-Quentin Basket-Ball, and Manisa Basket vs NINERS Chemnitz matchups.
Falco-Vulcano Szombathely will have homecourt advantage in the Play-Ins against Maccabi Ramat-Gan, while Pallacanestro Reggiana need to win at least one game on the road against Telekom Baskets Bonn in the best-of-three series.