FIBA Europe Cup: Numbers of Week 4

MUNICH (FIBA Europe Cup) - Action is heating up in the FIBA Europe Cup, with the cut-off point of the competition rapidly approaching at the end of the Regular Season.

With two more weeks left, some teams have already punched their tickets to the next round, while others simply breathed a sigh of relief after surviving to live another day.

Like at the end of every week, let's take a closer look at what actually happened across European arenas on Tuesday and Wednesday through a lens of numbers.

3

There was something unusual about the Top Performers nominee list this week, as it did not include the name of one Frank Elegar, who had been the only player to appear on all three previous editions this season.

The Enisey Krasnoyarsk center from the Virgin Islands registered his third consecutive double-double, scoring 15 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and swatting 4 shots against Rilski Sportist but it wasn’t enough for the weekly honours.

Alongside Stephen Zack of Lukoil Academic, Elegar leads the league with three double-doubles this season. The big man’s stellar play has been one of the main reasons why Enisey have already booked a ticket to the Second Round.

7

Murphy Burnatowski was brought in by Apoel Nicosia to space the floor and the Canadian forward demonstrated his touch against Pardubice on Wednesday night, setting a new FIBA Europe Cup season high in made three-pointers in a single game.

After going 7-of-9 from three-point range, Burnatowski collected a game-high 32 points in an extremely important 99-90 victory against Pardubice that gave the Cypriot side the head-to-head tie-breaker.

8

After four rounds of action, eight teams can already be sure of a place in the Second Round after clinching qualification with wins in Week 4. The list includes BCM Gravelines-Dunkerque, Nanterre 92, Redwell-Gunners Oberwart, Elan Bearnais, U-BT Cluj-Napoca, BC Mures, Enisey Krasnoyarsk and Vytautas Prienai-Birstonas.

Quite interestingly, like most of the clubs on this list, Telekom Baskets Bonn and Tsmoki Minsk are also undefeated in the FIBA Europe Cup, but due to the unique situations in their respective groups, they will have to wait for next week to lock in their spot.

13

Lance Jeter came into Week 4 as the run-away scoring leader in the FIBA Europe Cup with an average 25.6 points per game on an impressive 53% shooting from the field.

However, Gravelines strategist Christian Monschau seemingly found a way to stop the powerfully-built Donar Groningen floor-general, playing physical defence, trapping and often sending double-teams.

As a result, Jeter finished the game with only 13 points and 4 assists, a season-low in both categories. Groningen suffered its second loss of the season in what still was a down-to-the-wire game France.

17

Knowing that a loss to Prievidza would mathematically eliminate Steaua CSM from progressing to the Second Round, big man David Dudzinski kept his team afloat in Group F by almost single-handedly outrebounding the visiting Slovakian side in Bucharest. 

Steaua triumphed 82-71, as the 24-year-old American power forward scored 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting and notched up a league season-best 17 rebounds, while the entire Prievidza side only managed 21 boards as a team.

Steaua play-caller Claudiu Fometescu rolled with Dudzinski for almost the entire 40-minute game, giving him merely 90 seconds of rest in the first half. The player ranks third in total minutes played in the FIBA Europe Cup this year.

37

Nothing and no one came close to stopping Terry Allen this week, as the 22-year-old Kormend rookie was only one point shy of matching the all-time FIBA Europe Cup scoring record of 38 points set by SL Benfica’s big man Ivica Radic last season.

In the most impressive individual performance of the early season, Allen scored 37 points, grabbed 9 rebounds and added 2 assists, setting a season-high not only in points, but also efficiency index with a ranking of 38.

After a spectacular game against Limburg United, the 22-year-old American big man moved up to second place in the scoring leaderboard, trailing only Toni Bizaca of Sodertalje Kings with an average of 23 points per game.

65

There are eight teams still without a win in the FIBA Europe Cup, but the going has been particularly rough for both Estonian sides, who rank as the two lowest-scoring teams in the competition.

TLU/Kalev are last on the list with an average of 65 points per game, while Tartu are second-bottom with an average of 69.7 points per game.

However, not all is lost. With favourable results in other groups, wins in the last game of the Regular Season could still take them  through to the Second Round, as both teams play in three-team groups.

67.3

The rim was the size of the ocean for U-BT Cluj-Napoca against KB Peja on the road in Kosovo. The Romanian side made 37-of-55 attempts from the field for a season-best 67.3% mark from the field among all teams.

Cluj-Napoca made 25-of-34 two-pointers (73.5%) and 12-of-21 (57.1%) of their shots from three-point range, cruising to a convincing 99-76 victory against their Group G rivals to improve to a 4-0 record and qualify for the Second Round.

Vlad Moldoveanu scored 25 points on 9-of-10 from the field and grabbed 7 rebounds, while Aleksandar Rasic chipped in with 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting, also collecting 4 rebounds and 5 assists.

U-BT Cluj-Napoca are one of the league leaders in overall field goal percentage, ranking third with a 53.3% clip. Only Vytautas and Demir Insaat have demonstrated better accuracy.

FIBA