Power Rankings: Donar Groningen and Mornar Bar join ESSM Le Portel at the top

MUNICH (FIBA Europe Cup) - We present the newest edition of the FIBA Europe Cup Power Rankings, a quick and fun way to keep up-to-date with all of the action throughout the Second Round and into the Play-Offs.

RANK	CLUB	MOVE
16			The Second Round is all but finished for the Finnish. Officially eliminated from contending for the Play-Offs, Kataja Basket will now be trying to avoid finishing Group I without a single win. They haven't lost a game by double figures all season in the FIBA Europe Cup, but four consecutive single-digit defeats in the Second Round made the situation un-salvageable for coach Greb Gibson and his crew.
15			The renaissance did not last too long for Belfius Mons-Hainaut. An impressive win against Group L leaders Donar Groningen had put their Second Round campaign back on track, but it did not stay there for too long, with the Belgians taking a wrong turn after encountering Keravnos. A 67-62 defeat has put them between a rock and a hard place, but a glimmer of hope is still visible through the cracks.
14			The overtime victory against Alba Fehervar to start the Second Round had raised the Lithuanian hopes, but the three defeats in a row that followed pretty much crushed them to bits. There's still time for BC Nevezis to reassemble a Round of 16 bid, but what may hold them back is the injury problems they have had to accommodate of late.
13			Uph… Well that is EXACTLY the situation Szolnoki Olaj wanted to avoid. Following a somewhat unexpected 92-89 loss to Mornar Bar despite David Vojvoda dropping a season-high 27 points, the Hungarian powerhouse no longer control their own destiny in Group J. They better load up on Bonnie and Clyde movies, because they will need some motivation to pull off a big-time robbery in order to advance from the Second Round.
12			And who do we have here?! After spending the last week at the bottom of the Power Rankings, we had a hunch Tsmoki-Minsk were digging an alternative route to the Play-Offs right through the gutter. We may not have been too far from the truth, with the David Kravish-led Belarusian side hammering the previously undefeated Bakken Bears by 21 points on the road in Denmark.
11			Keravnos haven't quite been the same team in the Second Round that they were in the Regular Season. A labored 67-62 win against Belfius Mons-Hainaut allowed the Cypriot side to move to 2-2 in Group L, but had little inspirational value. Considering they face Donar Groningen this week, the good thing for Keravnos is that lightning is said to never strike the same place twice, meaning another 40-point defeat is a highly unlikely scenario.
10			A short-handed U-BT Cluj-Napoca ran out of steam against Donar Groningen last week and lost the fourth quarter 34-15 en route to a 92-72 defeat in the Netherlands. But, trust us, nothing raises your mood after such a defeat like a 39-point triumph in the domestic championship, with BC Mures serving as a punching bag for the slightly irritated Romanian champions.
9			Egis Kormend mended their situation last week. Both in the Group J standings and in the Power Rankings, staying within a realistic shot of reaching the Round of 16. Although their two-point win over Demir Insaat wasn't enough to turn the head-to-head point differential in their favor, the Gasper Potocnik-side will be happy with the upset against the Turkish powerhouse nonetheless, especially as it resulted in five gained positions in the Power Rankings.
8			Despite their up-and-down form, the Power Rankings have been very kind to Demir Insaat…until this week. Their second loss in Hungary, a 73-71 letdown against Egis Kormend, inflicted some serious damage, with the Turkish side losing four positions in our virtual standings, the biggest drop of all teams. That being said, if someone compiled Power Rankings for individual players, the team's leader Erving Walker would be somewhere at the very top, having already made 22 three-pointers in four Group J games.
7			Nizhny Novgorod kept their fate in their own hands with an 89-80 road victory against Kataja Basket behind Ivan Strebkov's best game of the season in the FIBA Europe Cup. Having had a bye-week in the VTB League, the Russian side has had a lot of time to prepare for the upcoming do-or-die clash against Istanbul BBSK. The equation is simple. They win by four or more, they're in. They lose, they're out. Anything in between and we'll have to wait until the final week for the outcome.
6			Somebody ought to check Alba Fehervar for fever — pow goes the pun gun — because that team is HOT, HOT, HOT! The Hungarians took the visiting Nevezis to school to improve to a 3-1 record in Group J. If you take into consideration Hungarian championship games, coach Branislav Dzunic's side have now won six games in a row and are arguably playing their best basketball of the season right now.
5			After three close wins to start the Second Round, Bakken Bears finally ran out of luck in Group K in rather unglamorous fashion, ending up on the wrong end of a 96-75 blowout against the previously winless Tsmoki-Minsk. They did however end the week on a high note, lifting the Danish Cup for the record 11th time after a walk-in-the-park 33-point victory against Copenhagen Wolfpack in the Final.
4			Having pushed ESSM Le Portel to the brink of an upset even without their starting point guard Michael Thompson last week, Istanbul BBSK kept their losses in the Power Rankings to a minimum despite picking up the defeat. However, they find themselves on the edge of a slippery slide ahead of their upcoming game against Nizhny Novgorod, with a real threat of falling out of the race for the Round of 16 in case of another loss.
3			Mornar Bar can't stop winning. Everywhere. Having won 9 out of their last 10 games in all competitions, the Sailors had a week to remember, besting Szolnoki Olaj in the FIBA Europe Cup and triumphing 87-81 against ABA League leaders Buducnost in the local all-Montenegrin derby. Having lost only once in 2018 behind the improved play of star playmaker Derek Needham, Mornar continued their ascent in the Power Rankings.
2			Despite losing Stephen Domingo to a season-ending injury, Donar Groningen returned to the number two spot in the Power Rankings after getting back to winning ways in Group L with a 92-72 win over U-BT Cluj-Napoca and proving that the defeat against Belfius Mons-Hainaut was merely a coincidence. The addition of Bradford Burgess will take away a major headache for coach Erik Braal, who now addressed the team's needs at the forward positions.
1			They truly are the one and only and you can't take that away from them! ESSM Le Portel are the only team with a perfect record in the Second Round, the only team already through to the Round of 16 and possibly also the only team whose name gets opponents on edge. Their 83-80 overtime win against Istanbul BBSK was a bit more difficult than usual, but much of that was self-induced harm in the fourth quarter. Neva lost, undefeated!