MIES (Switzerland) - Three Final Four participants playing all on the same day, one eventful Greek derby, one of the competition's giants losing at home, and one debutant making history.
These are just some of the things that can happen on a Wednesday night in the Round of 16 of the Basketball Champions League, powered by Ameresco SUNEL. Follow us to find out everything in detail.
Galatasaray MCT Technic 83-90 Le Mans Sarthe Basket
Heading into this game, the first one for Gianmarco Pozzecco on Galatasaray MCT Technic's bench in the BCL after his move to Istanbul, the Turkish Lions had won their last five home games in the Round of 16.
However, Le Mans Sarthe Basket also had numbers on their side before visiting the Turkcell Basketball Development Centre: they had won five of their six games played against teams from Türkiye.
What the Italian head coach dreamed as the perfect return to the BCL ended up being like an early nightmare: Le Mans escaped from Istanbul with the 90-83 road victory, making a statement in Group I.
The French team could therefore celebrate their fourth consecutive victory in the competition, their best winning run in the BCL since November 2016.
Finishing with 15 points off the bench, Johnny Berhanemeskel was the highest scorer for Le Mans, which also had five more players ending up scoring in double-digits.
TaShawn Thomas (14), Trevor Hudgins (13 with 6 assists), Travante Williams (13), Shannon Bogues Jr (12), and Bastien Grasshoff (11) followed.
Without Will Cummings, Errick McCollum took care of business for Galatasaray, finishing with a double-double of 21 points and 11 rebounds. Fabian White Jr had 22 points and 6 boards grabbed in the defeat.
James Palmer Jr still had a decent stat line at 13 points, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds. However, he struggled shooting, finishing at 5-of-14 from the field.
Group I action was featured on Tuesday as well, with Rytas Vilnius celebrating the home victory against Hapoel Netanel Holon in front of the rocking red-and-black wave of Lithuanian fans.
Joventut Badalona 107-75 Elan Chalon
On Tuesday, Dreamland Gran Canaria could become only the second team in history to win their first seven games played in the BCL, but Pallacanestro Trieste were there to ruin the party.
Another Spanish team took the opportunity to join Virtus Bologna from 2018-19 in this elite company. On Wednesday night, Joventut Badalona debuted in the Round of 16 by already making history.
Their dominant 107-75 home victory over Elan Chalon will not only be remembered as a good start in this phase in Season X by the green-and-black Catalan side. It will be cemented as a legacy win.
Controlling from the beginning to the end, Daniel Miret's team dominated everywhere against the French team, out-rebounding (40-28) and out-assisting (26-16) Elan Chalon, while also shooting 16-of-31 from beyond the arc.
Everybody stepped up and got some playing time, and all Joventut players scored except for Miguel Allen. Among them, Cameron Hunt led the way with a 22-point winning effort over 10-of-11 at the charity stripe.
The 2006-born Croatian forward Michael Ruzic has been proving to deserve a shot for the Best Young Player of the Season; against Chalon, he finished with 14 points over 6-of-8 from the field.
This definitely wasn't the French team's night. Shots didn't fall for Jeremiah Hill (1-of-9 FG), but both Justyn Mutts (16 points) and Chalon's newest addition, Grant Golden (12 points and 7 boards), tried to keep the team alive.
Unicaja 90-85 Fitness First Wurzburg Baskets
Group K doesn't include just one contender coming from Spain, like Joventut, but another competition's giant and back-to-back champions, which play ACB basketball during the weekend as well.
While the Catalans had an easy night over Chalon, Unicaja found themselves in a rough spot down the line against Fitness First Wurzburg Baskets, surviving at the end to celebrate the 90-85 home win.
Ibon Navarro's team went up by 18 points (57-39) at the beginning of the third quarter, but Wurzburg fought back and made it even a one-point game (86-85) with 14 seconds on the clock.
Ultimately, Kendrick Perry (19 points) was clutch at the line with 4-of-4 free throws to lock in the reigning champions' first win in the Round of 16 in Season X. Nihad Dedovic was Unicaja's best scorer with 21 points, his BCL career-high in 42 appearances.
Following this result, Unicaja have won 32 of their last 33, standing on a 14-win run. They have now won their last 11 home games played in the Round of 16, scoring at least 90 points in the last four.
The backcourt duo composed of Marcus Carr (19 points and 7 assists) and Davion Mintz (23 points and 5 assists) was once again close to pushing the Germans to the win, but it wasn't enough.
Group K action will resume in the second week of the Round of 16, with Chalon facing Wurzburg on January 27 at 20:00 CET and Joventut hosting Unicaja on January 28 at 19:00 CET.
AEK BC 88-73 Karditsa Iaponiki
During the weekend, AEK BC and Karditsa Iaponiki crossed paths ahead of the clash in the BCL Round of 16. The yellow-and-black powerhouse gained the lead in the first quarter and didn't lose it again.
On Wednesday, things were different. Karditsa not only erased the Queen's early run, but even entered the last ten minutes of action up by six points (59-53). However, the final result was the same as in the Greek League.
Pushed by their beloved fans, who rocked the house last season in the BCL Final Four, AEK turned things around with a marvellous 35-14 period, winning 88-73 to start off strong in Group J.
This was their 22nd win after trailing at the end of the third quarter. No other team has more than 13 such wins in BCL history.
Lukas Lekavicius was the absolute star of the night for Dragan Sakota's team, contributing with 28 points (10-of-17 from the field) and 4 assists to lead the hosts to the victory.
"It was the first game in the BCL second round. We knew it was very important. We played against this team a couple of days ago, and we knew they were very good. So, Coach did a good job of not relaxing before the game, and we had a good game," he said.
AEK scored almost half of their points (42) from the paint, and RaiQuan Gray was a huge factor in doing so. He finished with 13 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and a thunderous poster dunk over Warren Washington.
Brandon Jefferson, who was crucial for Karditsa in getting to the Round of 16 as he was named MVP of the Play-Ins, had 19 points and 5 assists in the loss.
It wasn't the best of nights for the Jeffersons in terms of the final result, but Damien had a hell of a losing effort as well: he finished at 17 points and 6 assists, but he also turned the ball over 5 times.
AEK are now on top of Group J after the first gameday in the Round of 16, side by side with ALBA BERLIN, which beat Tofas Bursa on the road on Tuesday.