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15 things to look out for in Wednesday's games

MIES (Switzerland) - Week two action in the Basketball Champions League continues Wednesday with three games from Groups C, D and F, as five of the six teams are looking to get into the win column.

Here's what you need to know ahead of the three Wednesday games:

Bursaspor Info Yatirim (0-1) v Telekom Baskets Bonn (0-0)

Group F - 18:00 CET - Bursa, Turkey

  • Bursaspor Info Yatirim lost 68-48 against Reo Breogan in their first game in the BCL. Only Fraport Skyliners in October 2016 scored fewer points in their BCL debut game (65-47 v Monaco). Teams from Turkiye have lost their last four home games against German clubs in the BCL, including two against Telekom Baskets Bonn.

  • Bursaspor were the only team to make fewer than 20 field goals (18) on Gameday 1; their bench unit was also the only one in last week's games to score under 20 points (19 points).

  • Bursaspor's Michael Young has scored 10 or more points in each of his last three home games in the BCL. When did his streak started? Interestingly, immediately after he went scoreless in 21 minutes of action in a November 2019 game against... Bonn. Young was playing for JDA Dijon back then

  • Bonn won each of their nine BCL games outside Germany in the 2022-23 season. They trailed by as many as 17 points against AEK in their very first road game of the BCL 2022-23 season, but managed nonetheless to win the game, 73-66.

  • Bonn's new signing Christian Sengfelder averaged 13.6 points and 7.8 rebounds for his previous club, Brose Bamberg, in the last five BCL games in which he played for at least 20 minutes. Only two German players have accumulated more rebounds than him in the competition (143) but his average of 5.7 rebounds per game is the best among all German players with 20+ games played in the BCL.

Cholet Basket (0-1) v VEF Riga (0-1)

Group C - 20:00 CET - Cholet, France

  • Cholet Basket's only two wins in the BCL came at home, 79-70 v AEK and 89-71 v Tsmoki-Minsk, both in 2020-21; each of their last two home games in the competition ended up with an 18-point margin.

  • Cholet allowed 16 made three-pointers on Gameday 1, tied for the most in the opening week; Riga made 10 or more threes in each of their last three BCL games, their longest streak in the competition.

  • Cholet's Gerry Blakes has scored 15+ points in each of his four starts in the BCL. However, Cholet lost all four BCL games in which Blakes was a starter, and won two of the three games where he came off the bench.

  • VEF have lost their last 11 road games in the BCL with their last win coming in December 2020 against Rytas Vilnius (85-81). Each of VEF's last three road games were decided by a margin of at least 13 points. Before that, only one of their previous 10 games on the road had finished with a double-digit margin.

  • VEF's Isaiah Pineiro scored 10+ points in each of his last five BCL games. During his first 23 games in the BCL, he only had a single run of two consecutive games scoring 10 or more points. Pineiro registered his only double-double in the BCL (18 points, 13 rebounds) while playing for Riga in a road game against SIG Strasbourg, in January 2021. 

Banco di Sardegna Sassari (0-1) v AEK BETSSON BC (1-0)

Group D - 20:30 CET - Sassari, Italy

  • This will be the third meeting in the BCL between Banco di Sardegna Sassari and AEK BETSSON BC, after their two encounters in the 2016-17 season. The home team ended up as the winner in both those games, with AEK scoring exactly 78 points in each encounter.

  • Sassari have lost three of their last four home games in the BCL, with each of those defeats coming with a margin of greater than 10 points; however, the only win in that span came against a Greek team, 82-78 v PAOK in November 2022.

  • Sassari's Filip Kruslin has scored 10+ points in each of his last three BCL games, his longest streak in the competition, including 15 points in each of his most recent two games. He made 3+ three-pointers in each of those last three games, as many as in his first 16 games in the competition.

  • AEK won 84-79 last week against MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg and they have won their first two games of a BCL season only twice in their previous seven BCL campaigns, in 2016-17 and in 2020-21. The last time they won their first away game of a BCL season dates back to October 2018, a win on the road at ERA Nymburk (94-93).

  • Langston Hall scored 12 points in his first BCL game with AEK last week against Ludwigsburg, making all five of his field goals, but he has scored 10+ points in back-to-back games only once in his previous 22 appearances in the competition. He has 5+ assists in each of his last three BCL games, his best streak in the league.