By Stefan Djordjevic / info@eurohoops.net
During the Tuesday and Wednesday night, eight teams will be out of the competition while the other eight teams will continue their long journey to the prestige trophy.
Three games will be played on Tuesday and other five are scheduled for Wednesday.
Besiktas Sompo Japan – Medi Bayreuth
The Germans were just one of the three teams that were able to record victory at home in the first leg of the Round of 16. They beat Besiktas 81-76, but they weren’t completely satisfied. Bayreuth had 15 points lead in the first game, but Besiktas responded and ultimately cut the lead only to 5. It is going to be really difficult for the German side to overcome Besiktas on the road since the Turkish team can really defend its homecourt, with its last loss there being on October 11th, 2017.
MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg – EWE Baskets Oldenburg
The German derby didn’t live up to the expectations. Justin Sears nailed 21 points in the first game while Ludwigsburg was dominating the floor from the start until the end. They build 25 points lead before the second leg (88-63) and that will be very hard for Oldenburg to erase. However, in history, the beautiful game of basketball showed us bigger comebacks and bigger surprise.
AS Monaco – Zielona Gora
The French team was the most dominant one in the Regular season. However, they didn’t transfer that domination into the playoffs. They did beat Zielona Gora on the road in the first game, but it was buzzer-beater by Gerald Robinson who pushed them to the 84-82 win.
Zielona Gora showed that they have enough weapon to fight against Monaco. The game in France on Tuesday night will solve which team will continue their path in the Basketball Champions League and which one will have to turn to their attention only to the domestic league.
Pinar Karsiyaka – PAOK
PAOK was dominating the floor in the first game. They were the far better team as they were leading 19 points in one moment. Unfortunately for the Greeks, they lost their focus in the last three minutes of the match. Karsiyaka used PAOK’s lack of attention and cut the lead up to only 6 points. Now Karsiyaka needs to overcome these 6 points at home in order to advance to the quarter-finals.
Banvit – Nanterre 92
Banvit is playing the second leg of the matchup against Nanterre at home. With the support of their fans, they will need to protect the lead they made in France. They beat Nanterre by 8 points in the first leg and they are in the good position to make it to the quarter-finals.
The French team will need a better shooting night that they had at home. They shot under 40% from the field in the first leg and that kind of shooting won’t push them to the next phase.
CEZ Nymburk – AEK
In a duel of two very offensive teams, Nymburk came out on top in the first game and will try to keep their ten points advantage in front of the home crowd.
The Czech side has a great chance to advance. They won last 18 games in all competitions, and with everybody on the roster contributing (bench scored 56 out of 98 points in the first leg), they just need to keep the rhythm going.
On the other side, if AEK wants to have any chance of turning the tide, they have to step up defensively to not give up easy points and contest the shots inside the arc (Nymburk had an astonishing 72.7 percentage from the 2-point territory in the first game).
SIG Strasbourg – Neptunas Klaipeda
The first leg game was full of ups and downs but Neptunas managed to prevail in the end by five points. It was mostly thanks to Tomas Delininkaitis who hit five three-pointers and all of them at crucial moments.
Strasbourg is a much better team at home as they lost only 3 games out of last 20 in all competitions. In order to advance, Neptunas will have to be in the same offensive mood while finding a way to stop Strasbourg’s David Logan.
Iberostar Tenerife – UCAM Murcia
Tenerife managed to triumph in a very tough first game 71-66. Tenerife had an 11 point lead close to the end, but with a bit of luck, Murcia hit two 3-pointers to settle the game at five point difference.
As both sides mentioned, the most important thing in this game was controlling the paint and Tenerife managed to do just that in the second half which brought them the win.
Murcia scored a lot of points from second chances bu, they will have to be more focused, as Tenerife found a way to stop them.