MIES (Switzerland) - The Basketball Champions League is headed towards the Round of 16, but before the business end of the season begins, it's time to recognize the best players of the Play-Ins.
We've seen plenty of incredible individual performances during the best-of-three series, and these five players were named to the Team of the Play-Ins: Cassius Winston (Pallacanestro Reggiana), Will Cummings (Galatasaray), Hugo Besson (Manisa Basket), Matt Tiby (Falco-Vulcano Szombathely), and Jaime Echenique (Aliaga Petkimspor).
Cassius Winston put on a show for the Reggiana fans in both of their games against Telekom Baskets Bonn, coming up with big moves in the clutch and finishing the series with 22.0 points on 52 percent shooting, and 8.0 assists per game.
Will Cummings saved Galatasaray against Saint-Quentin Basket-Ball, hitting the series winning buckets to send the Turkish juggernauts through to the Round of 16. He averaged 19.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.7 steals, while getting back-to-back 20+ point games for the first time in his BCL career.
Hugo Besson was the key for Manisa Basket to defeat NINERS Chemnitz, as he had 27 points including the game-winning three-pointer in Game 1, and backed it up with 18 points on the road. Besson has been in double digits in all eight games this season, averaging 20.0 points per game.
Matt Tiby found the perfect timing for his three best games of the season. Falco-Vulcano Szombathely's big man averaged 15.7 points, 8.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists as the Hungarian champions eliminated Maccabi Ramat-Gan across three closely contested games, including a double overtime Game 3.
Jaime Echenique was the difference maker for Aliaga Petkimspor in their series against Hapoel Netanel Holon. Up until the Play-Ins, he had 7.8 points per game, only to go off for 15.7 points and 7.0 rebounds against Holon, setting his season-highs in efficiency rating (20, 19, 22) in those three games.
The MVP of the Play-Ins will be announced on Friday.