By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
With Bertram Derthona Tortona in a best-of-three series against La Laguna Tenerife, Ismael Kamagate has an opportunity to become the sixth player with 30 blocks in a single season of the Basketball Champions League.
In Game 1, the Italian club lost an overtime battle in Santiago Martin on Wednesday. Specifically, Kamagate did not produce a rejection to join the club but instead was on the wrong end of a controversial call late in regulation.
With the series moving to PalaFerrraris next Wednesday, the team coached by Walter De Raffaele will be looking to snap a perfect 13-game streak of Tenerife in the 2024-25 installment of the Champions League and force a Game 3, to then return to San Cristobal de La Laguna, snap a 28-game home streak of Tenerife, and clinch a berth in the Final Four. A demanding task, accompanied by Kamagate needing one more block for his 30th.
List of players with 30 blocks in a single BCL season
| Team | Season | Blocks | BPG | |
| Norvel Pelle | Varese | 2016-17 | 40 | 2.7 |
| Ovidijus Galdikas | Juventus | 2016-17 | 37 | 2.3 |
| Zach Hankins | ERA Nymburk | 2019-20 | 36 | 2.3 |
| Austin Wiley | Tofas | 2023-24 | 34 | 2.1 |
| Jerry Boutsiele | Bahcesehir Koleji | 2022-23 | 30 | 2.1 |
Building his way up to 29 rejections between the Regular Season, Play-Ins, and Round of 16, averaging 1.9 per contest, the 24-year-old center blocked at least three shots in five different games, including three displays with five blocks. Only three players enjoyed a larger trend in a single season.
Ejected from Game 1
In the series opener versus Tenerife, Kamagate tallied 12 points with 6/6 two-pointers, four rebounds, two assists, and one steal. He fouled out after battling for an offensive rebound and was also issued with a technical foul due to protests, with 17.3 seconds left in the fourth quarter. The visitors were up by one point and instead fell into a two-point deficit, utterly changing projections for the final seconds. Davide Denegri made a couple of free throws to knot the nail-biter at 80, and a solid defensive effort forced five extra minutes.
“My team played an amazing game,” noted 56-year-old De Raffaele, “We are a little sad about how the game finished. Little details made the difference, like one rebound, bad execution in offense, one bad call for the referees. We had a chance. Honestly, I can’t ask more from my team. We played with technique, with ideas, with pride, so I think we really showed how we can compete everywhere. It’s 1-0 to this amazing team with a legendary coach who I really appreciate a lot, but it’s 1-0 and we wait for the second game.”
It was only the second game across every single edition of the BCL Quarterfinals decided in overtime. The previous occasion saw Iberostar Tenerife and head coach Txus Vidorreta fall to SIG Strasbourg in the 2021 Final Eight.
Olimpia Milan, NBA draft, France
Kamagate has been on loan to Tortona from EA7 Emporio Armani Milan since midway through the 2023-24 season, a few months after inking a two-year deal with the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague club. Solid showings are far from limited to his debut season in the Champions League but feature 1.3 blocks alongside 8.0 points and 3.1 rebounds per contest in domestic competitions, including Italy’s LBA UnipolSai.
Back in 2022, he was selected by the Detroit Pistons with the 46th pick of the annual NBA draft. His rights were traded to the Portland Trail Blazers and then to the Denver Nuggets, resulting in two Summer League campaigns in 2023 and 2024. In February 2024, his rights were moved to the Los Angeles Clippers. It remains unclear whether moving his talents to the league based in North America will translate into making a regular-season squad in the future.
Coming out of the youth teams of Orleans Loiret, Kamagate launched his professional career with his hometown Paris in 2019. In the 2022-23 season, he logged 20 appearances in the 7DAYS EuroCup, now BKT EuroCup, and went on to play in nine 2023-24 EuroLeague games with Olimpia Milan before the ongoing loan assignment.
Beyond the club level, representing France expanded from eye-catching performances at the junior level to being capped at the senior level during the Qualifiers of the FIBA World Cup 2023.
Photo Credit: FIBA