MIES (Switzerland) - Round of 16 action returned on Tuesday. The two games in Greece offered loads of drama, while Unicaja await Wednesday's games to see if they are already through to the Quarter-Finals.

Earlier in the day, Galatasaray EKMAS defeated the defending champs Telekom Baskets Bonn.

AEK BETSSON BC knew they needed a win to stay in the hunt for the Quarter-Finals, after an abysmal 0-3 start to their Round of 16 campaign. Mindaugas Kuzminskas decided he's going to do whatever it takes to keep the 2018 champions alive, and that included a BCL season record.

Kuzminskas scored 40 points, posting the sixth ever 40+ point game in BCL history and the first one in just over a year since Braian Angola scored 41 in January 2023.

It was the highest-scoring game in the BCL this season, comfortably shattering the previous mark of 33 points set by Darussafaka Lassa's Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman.

 
And yet, it was not enough.

Third triple OT game in BCL history

Hapoel Holon and AEK played only the third triple overtime game in eight years of this competition. The previous two came in October 2016 (Rosa Radom v PAOK) and October 2017 (Umana Reyer Venezia v Banvit). The Tuesday contest stretched to two hours and 45 minutes of action in Athens.

Both teams had their chances to seal the deal. AEK blew a four-point lead late in the fourth quarter, then Holon could not hold on to a three-point lead with ten seconds to play in the first overtime.

The biggest comeback materialised at the end of second overtime, when Drew Crawford led Holon from an 8-point deficit (100-92) to tie the scores at 100-100 and into the third period of added time.

 
But with both teams at their physical and mental limits, there was no real drama to end the third OT. Holon kept a two-possession lead, and Shahar Amir became the hero late in third OT and averted a fourth by dispossessing  Zois Karampelas on the final possesion.

It finished 112-108, sending Holon to 2-2 with a sweep over the 0-4 AEK team, meaning the Greek giants cannot advance to the Quarter-Finals no matter what happens in their last two games.

Crawford led Holon's eight men in double figures with 19 points, an incredible team performance with CJ Harris and Justin Smith both out of the lineup in Athens. Jordan McRae had 27 for AEK to contribute to Kuzminskas's unreal effort.

Hunter Hale wins it for Promitheas

The other game in Greece on the day was also a thriller. UCAM Murcia arrived as arguably the hottest team in the BCL right now, riding an eight-game winning streak.

They had a chance to extend it to a club-record nine wins in a row, but Promitheas Patras were not interested in Murcia's history books.

In a game with 11 lead changes in which neither team was able to open up a double-digit lead, it was always going to come down to that last possession.

Coach Ilias Papatheodorou rang Hunter Hale's number, and the lefty shooter answered the call. His trademark pullup two set the final score at 79-78, giving him the game hero honors. Meanwhile, Rodions Kurucs had two shots to try and win it for UCAM in the final 13 seconds, but missed both of them.

 
Hale finished with 14 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists, while also getting 3 steals. Jaime Echenique got 17 points in just 18 minutes off the bench, but the top scorer was Anthony Cowan with 22 points on 4-of-6 three-point shooting.

Dustin Sleva scored 19 for coach Sito Alonso's team, who can find at least one positive in this defeat. Murcia protected the tiebreaker lead, remaining top of the group in a 3-1 tie with Promitheas.

		GAMES				GAME POINTS					POINTS
#	Team	P	W	L	%	For	Agt	+/-	FA	AA
1	UCAM Murcia	4	3	1	75.0	330	300	30	82.5	75	7
2	Promitheas Patras	4	3	1	75.0	314	312	2	78.5	78	7
3	Hapoel Holon	4	2	2	50.0	317	328	-11	79.2	82	6
4	AEK BETSSON BC	4	0	4	0	334	355	-21	83.5	88.8	4

Unicaja becoming Tofas fans

Unicaja took care of business early on against SIG Strasbourg, opening up a double-digit lead already before the break and taking a 47-28 lead at the half-time break to never look back again.

The home crowd carried them to a 91-62 win which means Unicaja rise to 4-0 in the Round of 16.

The hosts of the 2023 Final Four are now 5-0 at home this season, while scoring more than 80 points and allowing fewer than 75 in each of those five encounters.

Kendrick Perry sat this game out, but coach Ibon Navarro found a couple of new offensive leaders in Jonathan Barreiro and Tyson Carter.

Each of them had 10 points in the first half alone, both finished with 17, while the formidable defense got Unicaja 13 steals, a gigantic number compared to SIG's 4 steals in 40 minutes.

Both Unicaja and Strasbourg now await the Cholet Basket v Tofas Bursa matchup on Wednesday. A Tofas win would both send Unicaja to the Quarter-Finals and eliminate SIG Strasbourg from contention.

		GAMES				GAME POINTS					POINTS
#	Team	P	W	L	%	For	Agt	+/-	FA	AA
1		4	4	0	100	345	276	69	86.2	69	8
2		3	2	1	66.7	247	231	16	82.3	77	5
3		3	1	2	33.3	243	263	-20	81	87.7	4
4		4	0	4	0	296	361	-65	74	90.2	4