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

 
Game One in the EuroCup quarter-finals is behind us.

All the home teams won the series opener and each of them will be thrilled to know this is good news for them and for the future of the series.

The Good News

Roger Huggins and Dexia dominated Samara on the boards.

Dexia eye history

They like to say that in a play-off series, as opposed to the home-away system, the point differences doesn't play a big role. You can lose the first game by a 20 or 30 point spread and still advance. That's basically true, but in the EuroCup it's been a different story. The Belgian side Dexia Mons-Hainaut trashed CSK-VVS Samara 92-66 in the first encounter of this quarter-finals pair, and if history is your guide, then go put your Euros there. In the past four EuroCup seasons no team who lost the quarter's opener, like Samara did, was able to recover from that and win the following two games. On top of this the team that won by such a big margin went very far. In 2004 Unics smashed KK Hemofarm 76-52 in Game One and ended up grabbing the title. In 2006 Rostov hosted Rudy Fernandez and the gang from Badalona only to lose at home 88-54 and see Joventut march on from there to win the title as well. Last year it was Azovmash who beat AEL 88-63 and made it all the way to the finals, before losing to Akasvayu Girona in the title game. Mons topped both Azovmash and Unics with a 26 point win, and will go down in the books with the second biggest spread in Game One of the EuroCup quarters. If they keep the tradition set by Unics, Joventut and Azovmash they'll go down in those books as the second team from Belgium to ever reach a European competition final and the first since 1973.

The (first) winner takes it all

Dexia, AEL, Barons and Tartu will be thrilled to read the next bit of good news. The last four years of EuroCup history has given us a total of 16 quarter-final pairs. Up to this point nothing exciting, but the fact is only once in those 16 encounters has the team that won the first game failed to win the series. Game One in the EuroCup means a lot! In 2005 BC Kyiv lost 93-88 in Israel against Ironi Nahariya in the series opener, but managed to win the next two games to be the one and only team ever to lose the first game and win the series.

Team Run

For 30 minutes Samara were still in the game but Dexia held the lead, though the slim margin was nothing to crow about. At least not yet. Down by eight early in the last quarter Samara were in a perfect spot to jump on their prey and take over, but then came a 13-1 local run that changed the plans. The beauty of that run was that all of Dexia's line-up contributed. All five players scored in that run, none of them more than three points. When the ball moves around, each player gets a feel of it and his own share of shooting, everybody is much happier and the opponent has a tough time to figure who will strike next.

King George I

Tartu Rock are just one game short from a historical first Final Four appearance for an Estonian club, after a 78-75 win over Ural Great. The Russian side has a longer history and tradition, with one EuroCup Challenge Cup in the cabinet, a couple of Euroleague seasons in their past and two Russian League titles. But Tartu, a

Jakov Vladovic and KK Zagreb could never quite get a handle on Barons.

club who never won more than three games in a European competition until this season, is close to shocking them. One of the main reasons for that is Georgian point guard George Tsintsandze who has had a stunning season so far and in the first game posted 16 points, six assists, four rebounds and four steals. Don't be mistaken by the final result. With less than eight minutes to go Tartu held a 69-54 lead after Tsintsadze dished an assists for a three-pointer and added a strike with his own bucket. Ural Great made a big come back until Tsintsadze went to the line with 38 seconds on the clock and his team up by four. With the entire pressure on his back the 22-year-old guard nailed both shots, and secured the win.

The Bad News

Zagreb lost it

In most games, especially at this stage, momentum plays a big part. When you miss a chance to get closer to your opponent, especially if you're playing on the road, it can decide the game. That's what happened to KK Zagreb in their road game against Barons LMT. The Croats controlled the game in the first half, but saw Barons take over in the third quarter. Nevertheless with 100 seconds to play in the quarter and down by one, Zagreb had the chance to take the lead back, and enter the deciding quarter on top and with more confidence. Instead they made three turnovers in a row, which allowed the locals to take a 52-46 lead after three quarters. The same scenario took place in the last period. Barons took an eight point lead, and the visitors had a chance to move closer, but all that resulted was another series of three turnovers in a row. Barons managed to convert only one of those gift possessions, but after missing three chances to make it a six point game, Zagreb saw the locals take their first double-digit lead and decide the game. The box score shows Zagreb made six turnovers more than the winning side, which turned out to be crucial.

Samara's crown is grey

Coming into the first game against Dexia, Samara was the crowned team of the EuroCup in the rebounds department. They pulled down an average of 39.1 per game, far and away better than the second place team and a world away from Dexia. When a team is losing by a big margin it's either because they shot a worse percentage or they had fewer shots. Samara's case was closer to the second scenario, and this means they had fewer possessions than Dexia. The main reason was rebounding. Dexia out-rebound the EuroCup kings of rebounds 42-27. Pay attention to this category in the future of this series, it could turn out to be a huge factor.

Khimik disappeared in the second

If you're a EuroCup team there's one thing you'd wish to avoid - falling behind AEL on their home court. Khimik finished the first quarter with an 18-16 lead but had a traumatic second quarter that forced them to chase after the locals. In the second quarter Khimik scored only two field goals out of 10 attempts, and committed no less than six turnovers. The Cypriot club allowed only eight points in that period of time, and took a 1-0 series advantage.