MIES (Switzerland) - Mega and Partizan took part in the opening Basketball Champions League season in 2016-17. FMP became on Wednesday the first Serbian team to played in this competition in nearly eight years, and cerebrated the occasion with a victory. .
FMP SoccerBet 70-58 Peristeri Domino's
Peristeri finished last season with a defeat at the Final Four in Belgrade. They opened up the new campaign in a different arena, but in the same city with the same outcome, as FMP's defense held them to 32 points in the first 30 minutes.
Vojislav Stojanovic had 18 points, making four three-pointers, Matic Rebec scored 13, while Danilo Tasic had a typical Danilo Tasic stat line with 10 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and a steal.
Honorable mention goes to Ognjen Kuzmic. The former Golden State Warrior only had 4 points, but picked up 8 rebounds and FMP were a +14 team in his 23 minutes of action.
It was the first win for a Serbian team since Partizan defeated PAOK in Game 1 of the Play-Ins back in 2017. They lost the series and were eliminated afterwards, while Mega were held back in the Regular Season earlier in that same campaign.
Trying to reproduce their 2023-24 performances, it's going to be a tough task for Peristeri with a lot of changes on the bench and on the floor. CJ Harris had 21 points in 23 minutes for coach Georgios Limniatis.
BAXI Manresa 92-64 SL Benfica
There was another successful return to the competition on Wednesday, with BAXI Manresa defeating SL Benfica with ease.
Derrick Alston Jr is picking up where his father left off in Manresa in 1998, leading the team with 25 points and 7 rebounds in just 21 minutes of action.
Mario Saint-Supery joined the number of double digit teenagers, as the 18-year-old guard counted to 13, and Cameron Hunt scored 14 in 18 minutes. Emanuel Cate had 14 points in 18 minutes, as well.
Benfica could not build on their BCL Qualifiers success from September, finding themselves down by 14 after the first quarter and getting back to single digits just once in the second quarter. Marcus Thornton scored 13 in a losing effort.
Bertram Derthona Basket 87-81 NINERS Chemnitz
Last season, Bertram Derthona Basket finished the group stage at 5-1, narrowly losing out to UCAM Murcia in the battle for the top spot in their group, and then falling to Galatasaray in the Play-Ins.
The Italians are off to another bright start this season, with a rock solid performance to take down the NINERS Chemnitz at home. The final score does not paint the real picture, as Bertram were firmly in control of the game, leading for 31 minutes.
Tommy Kuhse introduced himself to BCL surroundings with 22 points and 9 rebounds, while Arturs Strautins scored 16 with 9 rebounds, and Ismael Kamagate had 14 and 9 rebounds.
Chemnitz got 19 from Olivier Nkamhoua, while BCL veteran DeAndre Lansdowne scored 14.
WKS Slask Wroclaw 75-84 Falco-Vulcano Szombathely
Another season, another Zoltan Perl masterclass. The legend of the club scored 29 points to lead the Hungarian champs to a road win over the newcomers from Poland.
Perl is now up to 551 BCL points off the bench, taking the all-time lead in that department from AEK's Dusan Sakota, who finished his career with 533 bench points.
Isaiah Whitehead scored 25 in 28 minutes for Slask.