| 14 November 2008
 | 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 final list for the EuroChallenge Regular Season is set. Eight teams celebrated on Tuesday night, most of them far before the final buzzer. Liege BC, EWE Baskets, Proteas EKA AEL, SAOS Hyeres, CSK-VVS Samara and EiffelTowers Den Bosch marched into the last minutes, sometimes before that, with the ticket safe in their pocket. BC Sumykhimprom used a third quarter run to keep Siroki out, while Antalya Basket and D. Bank Skyliners-who finished the first leg with a tie-waited for the last seconds this time as well before the German side celebrated on Turkish soil. Good News Right place, right time  | | William Thomas led Liege BC with 12 points and 10 rebounds. |
Skyliners power forward, Derrick Allen, isn't the main executer of his team, and so far in this EuroChallenge season didn't excel in shooting. After two rounds with two legs each he stands on less than eight points per game and has shot less than 40% from the field, but Allen is the reason Skyliners got the ticket. After the first game with Anatalya Basket finished in a tie, the teams saw the scenario approaching again. Skyliners had the ball for the last possession, with the game tied at 65-65. Allen, who was 1-4 from the field until that play, got the ball from Titus Ivory, and right with the buzzer improved his line. Allen scored only four points on the night, but enough to make the difference between a two point win, and a two point loss.Taylor made One of the sweetest things in the two qualifying rounds of the EuroChallenge was AEL's Quincy Taylor. The US guard, stands at 196cm, played so far in Slovenia and didn't seem like a great offensive threat. He's a versatile player with very good defensive skills, but in AEL he shows he can be dangerous on both ends. AEL probably had the toughest draw, and passed very dangerous obstacles in the qualifying rounds - BC Donetsk and Banvit BC. Taylor averaged 18.3 ppg, 5.3 apg, 4.8 rpg, 2.3 spg while shooting in 66.7% inside the arc and 42.9% outside it in those four games but it's more interesting to break those games down. Actually his better games were on the road, where he punched in 24 points, 6.5 assists and 6.5 rebounds with very similar numbers in each game, while dropping to 12.5, four assists and three rebounds in front of the fanatic yellow fans of AEL. Taylor was a key part in making sure AEL will get to protect their spot in the Final Four, and he's someone to keep an eye on for the rest of the season. Shooting lights out Liege BC traveled to JA Vichy with a seven point win in their back pocket from the first leg. Already in the first quarter Vichy deleted that margin, but the Belgians happened to be in an unstoppable run from long range that left no chances for the local side. Liege enjoyed a crazy shooting night, when they connected no less than 13 three pointers in a shocking 61.9%. Breaking it down to quarters makes it even more impressive. In the first Liege made all their three attempts from long range. In the period before the break they added the same number of hits, but also missed for the first time, reaching an impressive six out of seven in total by half time. In the third the numbers got better as Liege hit four out of five from long range, enough to secure the win and rest their handles in the last quarter, when only three out of five attempts drilled in. Bad News Siroki's sleeping time BC Sumykhimprom and CBC Siroki finished the first leg with a tie, and stayed close to each other for one more half in Sumy, Ukraine. After Siroki made it 43-40 half a minute inside the second half, came the change. In the next 4:30 they scored only three points and all of them from the free-throw line. Four missed shots in a row and one turnover allowed the locals to make it a double-digit game. Not only Siroki's offense went cold, the defense wasn't at its best as well. In their run Sumykhimprom were perfect from the field with five unmissed attempts, including three from long range. That was enough to make a difference and break the tie on the way to the EuroChallenge. Asesoft's slippery hands CSU Asesoft Ploiesti lost by 26 points in Toulon on the first leg, and faced a very difficult task at home against SAOS Hyeres. The final score shows a 10 point difference for the Romanian side, but doesn't tell the whole story. With 7:13 to play Asesoft already held a 20 point lead and had the ball in their hands, but turned the ball over and SAOS made it a 16 point game. The locals got one more chance when the gap jumped to 19, but back-to-back offensive rebounds by the French side stopped the local momentum, and from there it was done. A lost possession and two boards slipped from Asesoft hands, and eventually made the difference. |
