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Regular Season Week 9 update
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Perhaps double as many could have advanced in Week 9, but six teams made sure of their places in the ULEB Cup elimination rounds with go-through victories on Tuesday while two losing teams also got carried through into the next round in the shuffle of results. The six Week 9 winners who advanced came from six different countries: Galatasaray Cafe Crown of Turkey, Swans Gmunden of Austria, Red Star of Serbia, Asvel of France, Benetton Treviso of Italy and Zadar of Croatia - while the two losing teams who benefitted were Lukoil Academic of Bulgaria and Panionios On Telecoms of Greece. In Group A, Siauliai moved into a third-place tie with Alba Berlin by defeating Guildford Heat 76-86 on the road. In Group B, Elan Chalon topped BK Ventspils in overtime, 97-89, to force a three-way tie for second place with Koln, a 75-65 road loser at FMP. In Group C, Galatasaray Cafe Crown clinched third place and a ticket to the next round by rallying past CSU Asesoft 72-64, while Akasvayu won the group with a 92-72 home win against Spirou Basket. In Group D, Pamesa's 73-74 road win at Azovmash and SLUC Nancy's 84-78 home win over Deutsche Bank Skyliners means that first, second third places won't be decided until the last week. In Group E, Swans Gmunden claimed at least third place and the last sure ticket to the elimination rounds by defeating Antwerp Giants 80-69. At the same time, Triumph Lyubertsy will finish first after downing Benetton Fribourg 76-61. In Group F, Red Star soared into the next round with a dramatic 76-77 road win at Beghelli Bologna. Telindus Oostende denied the same possiblity to CEZ Nymburk with another down-to-the-wire 83-81 home win. In Group G, Asvel Basket advanced with a solid 84-72 home win against Asco Slask Wroclaw, which also assured Panionios On Telecoms a place in the next round despite its 74-79 home loss to Gran Canaria. In Group H, the same scenario repeated itself, as Benetton Tamoil advanced with an 82-64 victory over Artland Dragons that carried along Lukoil Academic to the next round despite its 85-84 road loss at BC Kyiv. And in Group I, Zadar assured itself a spot in the elimination rounds by defeating Hapoel Jerusalem 103-75 because EiffelTowers also stopped Strasbourg 83-60. Finally, as if to show that not even elimination curbs their competitiveness - and keeps the competition unpredictable to the finish - five last-placed teams out of the nine groups - Hanzevast Capitals, Hapoel Galil Elyon, Ludwigsburg, Pau-Orthez and EiffelTowers Den Bosch - also won in Week 9.
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Who's hot:
Khalid El-Amin of Turk Telekom has pretty much been hot all season, but he’s turned it up a bit in recent weeks, topping the 30 mark in index rating in his last two games. El-Amin averaged 28.5 points on 66.7 three-point shooting plus 4.5 assists in these last two wins. He is now fourth in the ULEB Cup in scoring with 21.4 points per game.
Akasvayu Girona big man Jackson Vroman followed up his Week 8 MVP performance with another big outing. Vroman has averaged 28.5 points on 75.8% shooting, 9 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 1.5 blocks in his last two games. Together with center Marc Gasol, Vroman makes up one of the most productive frontcourts in the competition.
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Who's not:
Former ULEB Cup champion Hapoel Jerusalem has just gone through its worst two-game stretch ever in the competition, After losing by 53 last week at Unics Kazan, injury plagued Jerusalem lost 103-75 at Zadar. Hapoel has been outrebounded 94-42 and had 10 shots blocked while only rejecting 2 in those games. The team’s leading active scorer (Jamie Arnold is sidelined), Timmy Bowers, has posted just 6.5 points with 4 turnovers per game in that stretch.
BC Kalev/Cramo starting forward Rait Keerles had 2 points and 0 rebounds in 21+ minutes in a loss to Ludwigsburg on Tuesday. It was Keerles’s third consecutive game with a negative index rating. The 27-year-old has averaged 4.7 points on 4-for-11 two-point (36.4%) and 1-for-15 three-point shooting (06.7%) in those games, after going for 7.8 points on 68.4% two-point and 38.5% three-point shooting in the first six games of the season.
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Week 9 surprises:
Swans Gmunden clinched a berth in the elimination rounds. The Austrian champs are in their first season in the competition and feature a number of semi-pro players, but led by head coach Bob Gonnen and veteran scorer Deteri Mayes, the Swans believed in themselves and swept two of their competitors for the third spot in Group E to make history.
As stated above, Week 9 saw five fifth-place teams win, however only one of them Hanzevast Capitals, knocked off a co-group leader. The Caps picked up just their second win of the season and ended Hemofarm Stada’s hopes of claiming first place in Group C with a 94-85 win at Groningen, Netherlands. Alson Mason led Hanzevast with a season-high 19 points.
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Week 10 Games to Watch:
There will be only two head-to-head duels for first place in Week 10. One takes place in Group G, where Gran Canaria (7-2) hosts Asvel Basket (6-3). Granca, which is not only undefeated at home this season, but is 19-0 in ULEB Cup regular season home games, is the favorite, since it would wrap up first place with a win or a loss by fewer than 8 points, as it fell to Asvel 94-86 in France earlier this season.
In Group D, Pamesa Valencia (7-2) hosts Khimki (8-1) needing a win by more than 3 points to capture first place and a top seed in the elimination rounds draw. Pamesa is 4-0 at home this season and unbeaten in 21 career ULEB Cup home games. When these teams last met in Week 5, Anton Ponkrashov came off the bench for a season-high 24 to lead Khimki to an 81-78 victory.
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Did you know?
Besiktas ColaTurka is one win away from becoming the first team in ULEB Cup history to finish the regular season 10-0. Six teams have gone 9-1 in the past: Zeleznik in 2003, BC Reflex and Estudiantes in 2004, Ventspils and Lietuvos Rytas in 2005 and Unics Kazan in 2006. However only L. Rytas among these teams advanced past the semifinals in the playoffs.
Julius Jenkins of Alba Berlin became the 15th player in ULEB Cup history to score 500 points in the competition when he netted 19 this week. Jenkins now has 515 career ULEB Cup points in 31 games with two different clubs. His career average of 16.3 points per game ranks him fifth all-time of players with at least 30 appearances. Jenkins played 12 games for Euphony Bree in 2005-06 before joining Berlin last season.
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Thursday, January 17, 2008
ULEBCup.com
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