04 October, 2022
14 May, 2023
0 Tj Shorts Ii (BONN)
25/10/2022
Review
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Seven takeaways from Tuesday: Tied at 80 between Shorts and McCollum

MIES (Switzerland) - Another four games were on in the Basketball Champions League on Tuesday. BAXI Manresa are up to 3-0, while Pinar Karsiyaka and Telekom Baskets Bonn climb to 2-1. VEF Riga picked up their first victory in Season Seven.

Because we are in Season Seven, we are breaking down every Gameday with seven takeaways.

#1 Errick McCollum chasing records

We already said Pinar Karsiyaka made a smart decision when they brought in Errick McCollum, and it seems that the man who won a lot of scoring titles in his career is out to get the BCL one, too.

McCollum put up 23 points in the first half, finished with a BCL season-high 33 points, tying the mark that Bryant Crawford set with Igokea m:tel just last week. McCollum shot 10-of-20 from the field, 6-of-11 from beyond the arc, 7-of-8 from the charity stripe, with 5 assists and 4 rebounds also to his name.


All of that was more than enough for Pinar Karsiyaka to defeat UNAHOTELS Reggio Emilia 83-76 and climb to 2-1 in Group B. One thing we will keep an eye on - this was the first time Errick McCollum was used as a starter in the BCL, but being a professional scorer, it made no difference for him.

With 33 on the day, McCollum's total over three games in the BCL is at 80, which is 26.7 points per game. MVP of the month? Top scorer of the entire season? Sure.

#2 Wait, TJ Shorts is there too

Errick McCollum had the best three-game scoring start to the Basketball Champions League since TJ Shorts did it a couple of minutes earlier. In that same group, too.

Telekom Baskets Bonn picked up a huge win on the road, erasing a 17-point lead that AEK held midway through the second quarter in Athens. It finished 73-66, and it was just another game where you wonder if that's TJ Shorts or prime Isaiah Thomas with the lefty hesitations and acrobatic layups out there.


Shorts finished with 26 points on 10-of-18 shooting, including 3-of-3 from the three-point range, with 7 assists and 4 rebounds also in the boxscore for the 175cm/5'9'' point guard. Scouting report said outside shouting is not his strong side. Scouting report will now say to stay closer, because Shorts is 7-of-9 from deep in the first three games.

He is only the second player with three straight 25+ games in the BCL - Kevin Punter had his run in January and February 2018 - but Shorts is the first man to do it in his first three BCL games.

With 26 on the day, Shorts' total over three games in the BCL is at 80, which is 26.7 points per game. MVP of the month? Top scorer of the entire season? Sure.

#3 BBBBB

The letter of the day was B in Portugal. BAXI Manresa beat SL Benfica backed by their bench unit, especially Brancou Badio, who had the best game of his BCL career. Including this buzzer-beater down here.


Manresa are up to 3-0 now, thanks to their 97-78 triumph on the road. Badio had 22 points and 8 assists off the bench, Jerrick Harding was also a part of the second unit and scored 19, Juampi Vaulet had 19 in 19 minutes, and Marcus Lee picked up a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

This was Manresa's third best scoring game in BCL history. They had 121 against Polski Cukier Torun and 103 against Nutribullet Treviso, and speaking of records, the 60 bench points are the most by any team in the BCL this season.

Beautiful basketball by BAXI. We should move them to Group B, just to keep the vibe going...

#4 Change the name to WEF

VEF Riga picked up their first W of the season, and not only did they do that, they made a gigantic step towards the Play-In phase. Why? Because they defeated Limoges CSP 71-51, getting one win ahead of the French side at 1-2, while Limoges are down at 0-3 and have to chase a 21-point win in the reverse fixture to take the tiebreaker.

VEF made all 16 of their free throw attempts, which is the most makes without a miss in a Regular Season game by any team over the last two years. Back in December 2020, Falco Szombathely shot it 18-of-18 from the charity stripe against Nizhny Novgorod.

At around the same time, VEF were also in the record books, defeating Rytas Vilnius by 24. That means that this 20-point win is their second largest in the Basketball Champions League, and the 51 points conceded was the fewest they ever allowed in this competition.

Just a winning day all over the place for VEF Riga.

#5 History for Tim Frazier

Even in a losing effort, Tim Frazier set a new mark in the BCL. AEK's point guard dished out 13 assists, the most for a player without a single point on the day. We already talked about that, pass-first point guards are a dime a dozen in this League, this was the sixth 0pts/10+ ast game over the seven seasons.

AEK were always known for their tough home court, but scoring 66 is the fewest for them in Athens since October 2019 when they had 62 against Telenet Giants Antwerp.

#6 Wait, Andrea Cinciarini is here, too

UNAHOTELS Reggio Emilia's point guard also had double digit assists on the day, dishing out 10 of them in the defeat to Pinar Karsiyaka. With another fine display in finding his teammates, Cinciarini is now the third player in BCL history to get 10+ assists in each of his first three games in this competition.

Chris Wright had 11, 10 and 10 with Polski Cukier Torun in 2019-20. Marques Green had 10, 10 and 11 in his first three games with Sidigas Avellino in 2016-17.

No player had 10+ assists in the first four games. All eyes on Andrea now!

#7 Portugal, number 28

SL Benfica were awesome in their first two BCL games, and already placed Portugal on the map in this competition. Their home game against BAXI Manresa was the first one to be played in Portugal, ever, adding another flag to the list of countries which hosted at least one BCL Regular Season game.

Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belarus, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and now Portugal.

BCL brought a continental tournament to 28 different countries in Europe. It's a global sport, so don't expect the list to stop there.