To say Yarone Arbel likes basketball would be an understatement of epic proportions.  He eats, sleeps and breathes it and gives his EuroChallenge impressions every week in Good News, Bad News.

CSK-VVS Samara is the only team without a win so far, and as a result they are also the first team to be out of the race, with their last three losses came in front of their fans.

In between are 12 teams fighting for no less than five quarter-finals tickets and the chance to keep dreaming of a European title.

A lot of positive happenings took place this week, forcing an adjustment in the balancing of this column.

This week five stories made it to the Good News part, mentioning a new season high in total rebounds by a single player, great team performances by Virtus BolognaFiere and AEL in addition to a crazy week for the shooters.

Just a single story makes it into the Bad News section, and even that is a team that wrote a great win this week.

The Good News

Milan Dozet of Proteas sank six three-pointers in his teams win over Cajasol.

Although every week the games are more crucial with no turn back, the EuroChallenge athletes showed this round they can perform even when the big pressure is on. This week displayed the most impressive shooting show of the season. Up to this week we saw 194 EuroChallenge games, including the qualifying rounds, but only 127 times had a player scored four or more three-pointers in a single game. This week in eight games no less than seven players joined that list. None of them went lower than 55.5% on percetage. From the perfect five hits of Alexey Surovtsev to the six three pointers of Milan Dozet, it was a showcase of how to shoot the ball. The gang of seven combined for 34 hits from distance at an amazing 60.7% clip. On top of this the week delivered no less than eight players who scored three times from distance, five of whom reached that number with just a single miss or none. The total of those eight was 24 three-pointers in 39 attempts, to give another unique percentage of accuracy at 61.5%.

Cypriot Style

In the last few years Proteas EKA AEL have climbed up the ladder of European basketball, and last year even made it to the Final Four.  But no matter how this season ends, this is the one that should be counted as when the Cypriot club officially joined the list of European clubs that deserve a real look. If anyone across Europe imagined AEL going 4-0 in a group that includes two Russian and one Spanish club he could have won himself plenty of Euros. Coach Dragan Raca deserves big credits for turning a team that relies on their great home advantage with a tough atmosphere to a team that can win anywhere, against anyone at any time. With an 88-78 victory over Cajasol this week, AEL wrote not only their sixth win in a row but also their third double-digit upset in a row in this very tough group. It had style too. Less than five minutes into the game Cajasol held an 8-7 lead, but Proteas bounced back with a 19-2 local run that put an end to this game before the first quarter finished.

A New Record

If you follow the EuroChallenge closely, it's no news Cholet's Randal Falker is one of the best rebounders on the continent. Coming into the game this week he already wrote two performances of 18 rebounds, in one he collected no less than 11 boards on the offensive glass. This week Falker, a 201cm athletic forward with good hands and a great defensive game, set a new season high of 20 rebounds in a single game as his team beat Telekom Baskets Bonn 71-54. He tied his season high of 11 offensive rebounds and helped Cholet out-rebound their opponent 51-34. With that Falker is holding three of the top four total rebounding performances of the season, but if he's looking for a new challenge, then 22 is the number to reach to set a new tournament high. Last season Kenny Adeleke grabbed 21 boards, while he's already tied with 11

Falker has been a monster on the boards for Cholet Basket.

The Independents

The group from Bologna managed a big step towards the next phase with a 93-77 home win over Galatasaray, and it's likely the battle for the top spot will be decided only in the last week when they travel to Kyiv. Until then Virtus sent out a loud message not only in the 16 point win, but also with how they won it. The Turks came out of the gate strong by taking a 10 point lead after nine minutes, but the locals erased that gap in five minutes and cruised to the win. The most impressive, and biggest statement of the game, was the fact Virtus achieved that on a bad shooting night for their superstar Earl Boykins. The US guard managed a season low of four points, and for the first time this season didn't reach double-digits. He did tie his season high in assists with eight for the fourth time, but this win proved Virtus can manage at this level, come back from a big deficit and win by a big difference even when Boykins is struggling, and that's nothing but good news for them.

They Like It Close

Two of the teams who made it already to the quarters and hold a perfect 4-0 record in the Top 16 - Cholet Baskets and Triumph Lyubertsy - are there because of strong nerves. It was mentioned here already how many close games Cholet have won and about the great comebacks of Triumph.  This week the Russians did it again just edging their opponent EclipseJet MyGuide Amsterdam 76-75.  Another close game is a good opportunity to review their totals. In 12 games Triumph finished five games with a final gap of just one basket - they lost one, finished another in a tie and won the rest. Two more games were decided by six points. For Cholet, who still didn't drop a game the whole EuroChallenge season, and won their last three games by a double-digit margin, it's the same five close games in 12 encounters. If these two maintain the top spot in their respective Top 16 groups till the end of the phase, the only place they could meet is the grand finals, and that would be a great chance for EuroChallenge fans to witness these two teams going head to head when the money is on the line, and see who has the strongest nerves around.

The Bad News

When Mons Paused

Dexia Mons-Hainaut scored a great win this week, keeping their chances high, with a 2-2 record and two home games in front of them. The 77-73 road win at Samara not only gave them a big push, but also eliminated the Russian side from the race. Moreover Mons earned the win after overtime on the road. So why are they on this side of the text? For a long scoring drought, that almost cost them the game. With 6:45 to play in the fourth quarter Mons took a 66-60 lead, but from there silence took over. Samara, themselves not in a great offensive mood, scored eight unanswered points and entered the last seconds with the lead. The veteran guard, Nate Reinking saved the day for Mons with seven ticks on the clock to force overtime, but even then the cork wasn't fully released. Only after two minutes inside the overtime did Mons score another bucket, going almost nine minutes with only two points. What was even more unique in that span of time was that Mons did not turn the ball over which is usually what happens during scoring droughts. In this case Mons turned the ball over just once in nine minutes, which is fairly impressive in any situation for any team, but hit just one shot in 13 attempts. Luckily for them, Samara got into a drought of their own, scoring only a single point in the last 3:30 of the overtime, and allowed the visitors a win.

The Three-Point Show
(Players with at least four made three-pointers this week)

Akerboom (EiffelTowers) 4/7
Downey (EiffelTowers) 5/9
Gurovic (Galatasaray) 5/9
Marshall (Rostov) 5/8
Surovtsev (Ural Great) 5/5
Dozet (Proteas) 6/10
Sljivancanin (Samara) 4/8

Total: 34/56 - 60.7%