Lokomotiv and Joventut are first to 2 wins in Eurocup

Round 2 of the 7DAYS EuroCup Regular Season began on Tuesday with four games which saw only one team manage to protect its home floor. Joventut Badalona did so by blitzing past Hamburg Towers to improve to 2-0. Joventut joined Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar atop Group A after it edged Lietkabelis Panevezys in Alan Williams’s return to action. Also Tuesday, Frutti Extra Bursaspor came back from 11 down to win in Venice, and Gran Canaria was victorious in Patras.

Group A

Lietkabelis Panevezys 84-85 Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar

Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar escaped Lithuania with a tough road victory after it knocked off Lietkabelis Panevezys 84-85 to remain perfect in Group A. Lokomotiv survived a nearly 3-minute scoreless drought in the fourth quarter and ended up getting the winning basket on Stanislav Ilnitskiy’s three-pointer with 33 seconds to play. Errick McCollum led Lokomotiv with 18 points on a historic night while Johnathan Motley had 17 points, Stanton Kidd 14, and Darius Thompson picked up 12 points and 11 assists for the 2-0 team. The game also saw the return to action of Alan Williams for Lokomotiv after the big man suffered a severe knee injury last November. Panagiotis Kalaitzakis poured in 22 points to pace Lietkabelis, which dropped to 1-1 in the group. Gediminas Orelik and Gabrielius Maldunas both scored 11 points, and Vytenis Lipkevicius chipped in 10 points and nine rebounds.

Joventut Badalona 73-56 Hamburg Towers

Joventut Badalona came up with its second straight strong defensive performance in notching a 73-56 home victory over Hamburg Towers. Joventut used runs of 13-4 and 12-0 in the final 13 minutes to move to 2-0 in Group A. Vladimir Brodziansky paced Joventut with 16 points while Andres Feliz scored 14 points and Ante Tomic had 11 points. It was the second consecutive round that the Spanish side gave up just 56 points – beating Dolomiti Energia Trento 56-86 last week. Hamburg dropped to 0-2 despite Jaylon Brown and Justus Hollatz both scoring 14 points and Zachary Brown picking up 11 points.

Group B

Promitheas Patras 81-85 Gran Canaria

In a thriller that went down to the final seconds, Herbalife Gran Canaria grabbed its first win in Group B by edging Promitheas Patras 81-85 on the road on Tuesday. Gran Canaria improved to 1-1 in the standings while Promitheas dropped 0-2. Dylan Ennis led the winners with 20 points, John Shurna added 17 with 11 rebounds, and Artem Pustovyi and Andrew Albicy each scored 10 points for Gran Canaria. Nikolaos Rogkavopoulos led Promitheas with 21 points, Isaiah Miles added 14, Kendrick Ray 13, and Jerai Grant 12. Shurna had ten quick points to give Gran Canaria a 10-15 lead, but Rogkavopoulos, Miles, and Grant allowed Promitheas to get a 25-22 edge late in the first quarter. Shurna kept pushing Gran Canaria, getting help from Chris Kramer and Ennis to give the visitors a 44-49 lead at halftime. Rogkavopoulos took over after the break before A.J. Slaughter, and Ennis helped Gran Canaria tie it at 66-66 after 30 minutes. Ray helped the hosts to a 77-73 lead. However, Ennis and Albicy fuelled a 0-7 run that put Gran Canaria ahead for good. Shurna sealed the outcome from the foul line with 6.4 seconds left.

Umana Reyer Venice 62-70 Frutti Extra Bursaspor

Frutti Extra Bursaspor roared from 11 points down entering the fourth quarter to stun Umana Reyer Venice 62-70 on the road on Tuesday. The Bursaspor defense held the hosts to 17 points in the entire second half, while Derek Needham led the charge on offense. He finished with 18 points on 4-of-9 three-point shooting plus four assists, Allerik Freeman netted 15 points, and Egemen Guven added 10. Stefano Tonut paced Reyer with 10 points and eight rebounds, and Mitchell Watt had 10 and 6. The result left both teams with 1-1 records in Group B.