BASKETBALL IN EUROPE

Deron Williams seems to be more than comfortable in a Besiktas jersey by now

When Deron Williams signed with Besiktas in the early stages of the NBA lockout, there might have been a few people who thought they were witnessing another PR move by the Istanbul club.

The Allen-Iverson-adventure in the previous season was still fresh on people's minds.

There might have been concerns about the will of the six-year-NBA player and Olympic Champion to adapt to European basketball.

Only a few weeks later the 27-year old playmaker has proven the exact opposite, leading Besiktas to a clean 3-0 record in the EuroChallenge and to second place in the TBL with five wins and only one loss.

His most outstanding performance certainly was the one on Tuesday, when he torched Göttingen, the EuroChallenge Champions from 2010, for 50 points in the 105-94 win in Istanbul.

The game was wide open after three quarters, with the hosts up 74-72 when the 1.91 guard took over and scored 17 points in the last quarter to lead Besiktas to victory.

Williams shot seven of 10 three pointers and made 10 of his 13 shots inside the arc.

It was the first time in the history of the EuroChallenge that a player scored 50 points.

While it was not the highest score in the last 20 years in a FIBA Europe club competition, it has been a while that a player took his tally to the half-century mark.

In 1999 in the Korac Cup, Charly Brown, on the roster of Herzogtel Trier from Germany, scored 60 points in a 132-139 loss to HKK Brotnjo from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The game went to double-overtime and Brown played 46 minutes in a fast paced shoot-out.

Oleg Melechtchenko also had a 60 point game in the Korac Cup back in 1993, as he lead BK Banik Cigel from Slovakia to a 131-89 rout of Bulgairan side Tcherno More.

But that was not all.

Joe Arlauckas, MVP of the EuroLeague Final Four 1995

While the statistics only date back to 1992, leaving aside the memorable game of Drazen Petrovic against Snaidero Casrta in 1989, when the guard scored 62, the highest club-competition-score in the FIBA Europe database happened in the European Championship for Men's Clubs in 1996.

Virtus Bologna hosted Real Madrid Teka in the regular season and it was the night of Joe Arlauckas.

The US American with Lithuanian roots on the books of Real Madrid, who finished 4th at the Final Four later that year, scored 63 points as the Spanish giants claimed a road win in front of a crowd of 5,700 in the Casalecchio di Reno in Bologna.

Power forward Arlauckas missed his only three point attempt of the night, but scored an unbelievable 24/29 from inside the arc and converted 15 of his 18 free throws.

It was not a surprise that the scoring machine ended up as the competition's top scorer with 26.4 points per game in 21 games.

While the game might have changed and it is hard to compare historical performances with today's one thing is for sure: the 50 point night of Deron Williams will be one to remember.

50 points or more scored in FIBA Europe competitions (club competitions only since 1992):