MIES (Switzerland) - Having won all of their 12 games heading to the Basketball Champions League Quarter-Finals in the Ninth Symphony season, La Laguna Tenerife are looking like the team to beat.
But basketball is a game of unpredictability and craziness, as best-of-three series have proven over the course of the years in the BCL.
Making their first international appearance in a do-or-die stage, Bertram Derthona Basket are eager to write another chapter in the club's trajectory.
Another black-and-white Italian team like Segafredo Virtus Bologna stood on top in 2018-19 after playing in their first BCL Quarter-Finals: will it be a déjà vu?
How did they get here?
Tenerife are close to playing Basketball Champions League action for a decade, as they are participating in their ninth campaign out of nine editions of the competition. And what a run they're having.
It looks like the more years they play, the better they perform on the court. Among all teams, they're the only unbeaten this season, with a perfect 12-0 run.
They conceded the least amount of points (396) in the Regular Season to their opponents - Karsiyaka, Saint-Quentin Basket-Ball, and Kolossos H Hotels in Group C. Obviously, they won all games.
Heading into the Round of 16, things got more difficult, but Txus Vidorreta's team proved to be even more fearless.
Despite knowing they would still qualify as 1st in Group K, gaining home-court advantage in the Quarter-Finals, Tenerife didn't take anything for granted, fighting until the end.
The comeback 84-74 road win over Reggiana and the latest 81-71 home victory against BAXI Manresa are self-explanatory proofs of the team's unlimited fighting spirit and character.
Talking about home victories, these continued to be the ordinary in extraordinary fashion. Following the most recent game played in the Round of 16 over Diego Ocampo's team, they have now won their last 28 home games in the BCL.
We remind you that they have home-court advantage in the Quarter-Finals.
On the other hand, Derthona may have already won by just having the opportunity of keeping on dreaming, starting their Quarter-Finals in Game 1 on the road on April 9 at 21:45 CET.
Their second BCL season could be summed up in a learning experience from recent memory.
In 2023-24, they had a promising start to their rookie campaign with a 5-1 record, tied with UCAM Murcia in the Regular Season. Despite having home-court advantage in the Play-Ins, however, they got swept by Galatasaray.
Moving to 2024-25, they had a similar early route, finishing at 5-1 in the Regular Season tied with BAXI Manresa, but wasting a 17-point advantage in the tiebreaker to skip the Play-Ins.
From then on, however, it was a matter of making the best out of it.
Sweeping Peristeri Domino's and finishing at 4-2 in Group I of the Round of 16, beating AEK Betsson BC and coming out on top in the decisive matchup against FIT/One Wurzburg Baskets, made the difference to go this far.
Were they here before?
As previously mentioned, this will be the first best-of-three-game series in the BCL Quarter-Finals for Derthona, while Tenerife have already participated in seven of them, advancing to the Final Four five times.
Their last defeat just before playing into the Semi-Finals happened in a very different scenario, that of the 2020-21 Final Eight organized in Nizhny Novgorod, where Txus Vidorreta's team lost at the end of a hard-fought battle that extended into overtime against SIG Strasbourg.
Therefore, they have won three consecutive Quarter-Finals series, against BAXI Manresa in 2022-23 and twice against Tofas Bursa, in 2021-22 and 2023-24.
Over the course of Tenerife's ongoing nine-year adventure in the Basketball Champions League, they weren't able to reach the Quarter-Finals just once, as reigning champions in the 2017-18 campaign.
Back then, they were taken out in the Round of 16, in a 2-0 sweep by UCAM Murcia, coached by Ibon Navarro.
Key matchup
There can't be action in the BCL Quarter-Finals without Marcelinho Huertas, who has reached such a stage since moving to Tenerife back in 2019.
Moreover, in the last three editions of the Basketball Champions League, he has always led the black-and-gold team from the Canary Islands to the Final Four.
If somebody said he would be a solid front-runner for being named Basketball Champions League MVP in back-to-back seasons at almost 42 years old, one would have probably laughed. Or at least not believed it.
Instead, we can't imagine Tenerife being this successful without the Brazilian magic playmaker, who has been performing unbelievably this season, posting up 15.1 points and 6.5 assists (2nd in the whole BCL) per game.
In the Round of 16, such numbers improve to 19.0 points and 7.3 assists.
It will take the best of defensive adjustments to Walter De Raffaele's team, but if there's someone capable of putting him in difficult fouling situations, that's Christian Vital. Also known as Derthona's savior.
Without the scoring production provided by the team's #1, who has averaged 15.6 points over 50.0 percent from two, 38.5 percent on 7.0 three-point attempts, and 88.9 percent at the charity stripe, the Italians wouldn't be here. His 28-point eruption over Manresa - among other crucial performances - screams it.
This series will also feature all-arounders like Justin Gorham, Aaron Doornekamp, Kyle Weems, Thomas Scrubb. Next up, why the clash of styles of Ismael Kamagate and Giorgi Shermadini could be the difference.
Stats Don't Lie
An important part of Derthona's system relies on the paint presence provided by big men like Ismael Kamagate and Paul Biligha, but also Justin Gorham on specific occasions.
If you have in the French center the competition's leader in blocks per game (2.1), it's easily consequential to note how Derthona stand in 3rd place in average blocks (4.0 per game) - 1st among teams capable of extending their run at least to the Round of 16.
Therefore, Giorgi Shermadini and Fran Guerra will have to deal with opposing strengths. We knew they also like to shoot the ball: Tenerife are 2nd in three-point percentage (41.5%).
It's the only team in the whole competition to have multiple players shooting three-pointers with a percentage equal to or higher than 50.0%. Luis Costa is 4th in the whole BCL at 50.0 percent with 2.3 attempted threes per game, and David Kramer is 2nd at 56.1 percent, attempting 6.0 deep shots per game.
Previous meetings
While Tenerife have been playing at the highest level in the Basketball Champions League since the competition's birth back in 2016-17, Derthona are new to this kind of stage.
In their two seasons playing BCL, the Italians have never faced the black-and-gold powerhouse. These being their first European adventures, there haven't been past clashes in other competitions either.
However, there are three previous meetings between the two head coaches, Txus Vidorreta and Walter De Raffaele, in the BCL. The first always on Tenerife's bench, while the other guiding Umana Reyer Venezia.
They happened to be one Final Four game, back in 2016-17, as the hosts Tenerife prevailed in the Semi-Finals, and two during the 2018-19 Regular Season, where the teams won at the respective opponents' court.