Strasbourg outlasts Tenerife, advances to FIBA Champions League Semi-Finals

It was the first overtime game in the FIBA Champions League quarter-finals, and it turned out into an instant classic. French team SIG Strasbourg pulled off an upset, taking down Spanish team Lenovo Tenerife 88-86 and continuing their Cinderella run by making it to the Final Four for the first time in club history.

It came down to big shots and who makes more of them. Teams were trading blows. Lenovo Tenerife tied the game on a pair of free throws by Sasu Salin late in the fourth quarter. Even though Brandon Jefferson missed the game-winning triple as time expired in Q4, he saved enough energy to do the damage in overtime.

His stepback three-pointer paired with an Ish Wainright bomb from the corner opened up a five-point lead with a minute to play in OT. Tenerife managed to make it a one-possession game, had a chance to tie it with 10 seconds remaining, but Santi Yusta’s three-pointer did not fall. Jefferson knocked down free throws, Marcelinho Huertas’ three at the buzzer just set the final score at -2, but SIG’s win wasn’t in danger.

The rebuilding of SIG Strasbourg has gone by extremely fast. Just a season ago, they were out in the Regular Season with a 4-10 record, and now they are two games from winning a prestigious European title. They await the winner of Hapoel Unet Credit Holon and Hereda San Pablo Burgos. Lenovo Tenerife ends their path in the Quarter-Finals for the second straight season. This one surely hurts more since they were the team with the best record heading into the quarter-finals.