Gran Canaria advances to Eurocup knock-out phase

Round 14 came to a close on Wednesday with five games, of which the hosts won four. Among them, Gran Canaria celebrated advancing to the knock-out stages.

Group A

Slask Wroclaw 77-68 Dolomiti Energia Trento

Slask picked up a massive victory in its hopes of reaching the playoffs by knocking off Trento 77-68 at home in Group A. Slask grabbed its second win in three games to improve to 3-10 while also locking up the tiebreaker over Trento, which had won these teams’ first matchup 81-77. Aleksander Dziewa paced Slask with a career-high 25 points, and Travis Trice had 21 points and eight assists. Trento lost its ninth in a row in falling to 1-13.

MoraBanc Andorra 72-71 Joventut Badalona

Andorra outscored Joventut 11-3 over the final four and a half minutes to claim a valiant come-from-behind 72-71 victory over Group A leader Joventut. Oriol Pauli led four Andorra scorers in double figures with 13 points and eight rebounds in helping raise his team’s record to 8-6. Joel Parra posted 15 points and nine rebounds for Joventut in defeat. The loss dropped Joventut to 11-3 for the season.

Boulogne Metropolitans 92 85-62 Hamburg Towers

Metropolitans claimed its fifth win in a row by overwhelming visiting Hamburg 85-62 at Marcel Cerdan on Wednesday night. Balanced offense and an effective defensive job on Caleb Homesley allowed the hosts to build a double-digit lead after 10 minutes, which grew to 21-points at halftime and reached a game-high 30-point advantage in the second half. Will Cummings scored 17, and Tomer Ginat posted a double-double for Metropolitans, who improved to 9-5. Lukas Meisner scored 17 for Hamburg, which slipped to 5-8.

Group B

Umana Reyer Venice 72-83 Virtus Segafredo Bologna

Virtus bested Reyer 72-83 on the road in a clash of Italian League foes. The winners improved to 8-6 in the fourth place in the standings and tied Buducnost VOLI Podgorica for the third-best record in the Group, while Reyer dropped to 7-6. Mam Jaiteh shined with 24 points plus 12 rebounds, and Milos Teodosic tallied 11 points and 13 assists to lead the victors. Jordan Theodore netted 18 points for Reyer in defeat.

Gran Canaria 87-81 Frutti Extra Bursaspor

Gran Canaria regained first place in Group B by defeating Bursaspor 87-81 to snap a two-game losing streak. Gran Canaria, which was already qualified for the playoffs before the game, took over with an 18-5 run spanning the final two quarters to move to 10-4 on the season. Artem Pustovyi paced the winners with 18 points and ten rebounds, and Dylan Ennis added 16 points. Bursaspor lost its seventh straight road game to fall to 4-9 despite Derek Needham scoring 17 points.