| 30.01.2009
 | 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. |
The Top 16 kicked off this week with one-sided displays on most courts.Only Cholet, who have turned close wins into a habit, edged their opponent. Five of the games were decided by a double-digit margin and a different group of five went in favor of the road team. Three of the groups actually had a very similar spread. In Group J we saw two road wins, both by exactly a 13 point margin. In group K the winners held an 8 and 9 point lead with the buzzer while in Group L the differences after the last shot were 17 and 16. Here is the good news and the bad news of EuroChallenge this week. The Good News  | | The diminutive Boykins hit the boards hard for Virtus. |
A Good Loss
Rostov took a field trip this week to Perm to face Ural Great, without Pero Antic, Fred House and Nikita Morgunov. Ivan Tomas, who shines in the bottom part of this column, went scoreless and Rawle Marshall took 33% of the shots of Rostov in a terrible shooting day of five made shots in 18 attempts. So what's the good news? The fact they lost just by 9, 69-60 in a tough spot and a very tough situation is one of the best results this week.
Close Winners
In extended standings you often see a column of "Wins/Loss up to 5 points" to measure how a team handles close games. In the case of Cholet Basket that column in their EuroChallenge ride will present a perfect record. This week came a 71-68 win in Bonn in a derby of "Basket" team between Telekom Baskets and Cholet Basket. The French side didn't drop a single game so far in the EuroChallenge in seven games, but this week was their fourth win with a four point difference or less. What stands out is the fact that in all four cases Cholet had always been on top in the closing ticks of the game, and didn't allow their opponent to take over the win. The big question then is can they also remain so cool and take the "W" if they enter the last minute behind. Career High Tie By Boykins
Virtus Bolognafiere climbed back on the winning track with a very impressive 104-91 road win in Istanbul over Galatasaray. No less than seven players scored in double-digits, nobody above 17, and the only player who played but didn't reach 10 was Roberto Chiacig who scored nine. This game was a great display by Earl Boykins who came close to a triple double with 14 points, eight assists and no less than seven rebounds. In 520 NBA games there were several cases where he in pulled five or six rebounds, but in just a single night the 165cm guard pulled down seven of them. On Tuesday night Boykins tied his professional career high in that area, and perhaps set a FIBA Europe rebound record for players under 170cm. The Bad News Dr. Ivan And Mr. Tomas
Rostov's Croatian combo guard, Ivan Tomas, was never an unstoppable sniper, but surely a decent perimeter shooter who collected his points in several ways. He consistently played well in the Adriatic league, but couldn't find a rhythm outside it in several places. According to the Russian league games it seemed like Rostov was a good home for him. He's standing on 8.8 points and 3.3 assists per game on an impressive 68.8% from distance and a perfect 16 hits from the line throughout the season. But when it comes to the EuroChallenge something doesn't connect. To be more accurate that something is his long range shooting. After missing all his four shots behind the arc this week Tomas climbed to a terrible zero out of 18 attempts in the competition so far. In seven games he reached just a total of 18 points and in five of them turned the ball over at least three times. Tough Rims In Seville
What Ivan Tomas combined for in seven games the teams of Cajasol and Proteas EKA AEL managed in one night. The Spanish squad exploded only two weeks ago in front of their fans with a 98-51 triumph to get the Top 16 ticket, but this week scored a season low of 56 points in the home defeat to Proteas EKA AEL, 64-56. Both teams reached together a terrible ratio of three made shots from long distance out of 32 attempts - lower than 10%. The Cypriots missed all their 12 attempts, but still earned a big win, which is good news for them, but such shooting displays are bad news for basketball fans. Spreading Shots
BC Kyiv earned a big 86-73 road win in Oldenburg but saw its two top scorers - Kenan Bajramovic and Clay Tucker, have a one sided shooting night. The Bosnian big guy hit eight shots and missed two inside the arc, while making one but missing eight from the other side of it. The US shooter hit five times from distance with three misses, but from closer distance he's still looking for his first bucket in the competition after missing all his three attempts. | 
