SAN CRISTOBAL DE LA LAGUNA (Basketball Champions League) - Iberostar Tenerife and ASVEL are expected to play 40 pulsating minutes on Wednesday night with a spot in the Basketball Champions League Final Four up for grabs.

Iberostar Tenerife will have the home-court advantage for the second leg of this Play-Offs Quarter-Final showdown and should be the favorites based on their total body of work this season. The Spanish outfit has been at the top of the Liga Endesa for much of the campaign, although a 79-68 defeat at CB Murcia at the weekend allowed Valencia Basket to leapfrog them into first place.

Txus Vidorreta's side will not be underestimating ASVEL, especially after the first leg.

ASVEL battled against all sorts of adversity to earn a 62-62 tie. The French club lost big man Adrian Uter to a torn ACL after he played just four minutes yet still managed to win the rebounding battle, 44-39. The 2.03m Uter had averaged 9 rebounds in the Round of 16 victory over Aris.

Someone that gave a little extra with Uter out was center Darryl Watkins, who played more than 34 minutes and finished with 9 points and 8 rebounds. Nikola Dragovic also logged a season-high 33 minutes and finished with 11 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 blocks.

"Darryl Watkins and Nikola Dragovic did a great job of battling so we could stay in the game without rotations," coach JD Jackson said. "You have to recognize that. I think we stayed focused despite the difficult circumstances. We lived to see another day."

If ASVEL were to prevail on Wednesday night, they'd be the second French side to do this season in Tenerife. Strasbourg won at Iberostar Tenerife in the Regular Season.

ASVEL have travelled to the Canary Islands full of self-belief. If guards DeMarcus Nelson and Walter Hodge can hit their stride early and if Watkins can get some touches, ASVEL will like their chances.

What should help is that ASVEL ought to have a better idea of how to attack the Iberostar Tenerife defense.

"It's not a typical defense," Jackson said. "Their rotations are very atypical and the first time you play them, it takes you a little bit out of your rhythm. Sometimes you're open or somebody else is open but you don't quite see them because it's not the standard rotations. So it's an adjustment to make. 

"In the next game, we'll have to adjust and make the right corrections. They're very aggressive and we know that when you play aggressive, you open up solutions and we have to find them."

The Canary Islanders will no doubt want an uptempo game. Making the Final Four would be another high for a team that has had plenty of them this season.

"As far as the Basketball Champions League is concerned," Iberostar Tenerife's Greece international center Georgios Bogris said to the Basketball Champions League website, "it's our big goal now. We want to get to the Final Four. We want to be there. It's a ride we enjoyed very much and it has bonded us through the season even more."

Greece's Bogris has been a key man for Iberostar Tenerife

Bogris is already assured of a spot in club history. He is the only player at the club to have scooped the competition's weekly MVP honor, something he did after a terrific Gameday 6 performance at Sidigas Avellino. 

One of the biggest strengths of Iberostar Tenerife has been their depth at all positions. A loss to ASVEL is sure not something that Bogris and his teammates are contemplating. Making the Final Four is at the front of their thoughts.

"It would be awesome, amazing," Bogris said. "It's something that will have a special place in the history of the club. It's a strong competition, we faced some tough and also historical European teams to get up to here.

"It would be great to still play in April, and we know that we are going to make a lot of people happy back in Tenerife.  Our fans are there for us every step of the way and we want to give something back."