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Week 11 Wednesday games preview

MIES (Switzerland) - The penultimate week of action in the 2020-21 Regular Season comes to a close on Wednesday with the final round of games in Group A and in Group C, which will award a total of three tickets to the Play-Offs.

For a full breakdown of all Week 11 permutations, please click here. For more details on the four Wednesday games, please read below:

Bakken Bears (2-3) vs. Iberostar Tenerife (4-1) -- Group A, 18:00 CET

 

  • Bakken will qualify to the Play-Offs if they beat Tenerife and Sassari lose at Galatasaray.

  • In their most recent outing, Bakken enjoyed a 96-62 rout of Copenhagen on the road in Danish league action, as Adama Darboe had 18 points to lead six Bears players in double digits.

  • Tenerife are coming off a big 108-87 win over Herbalife Gran Canaria, in the Canary islands derby in Spanish Liga Endesa action on Saturday, behind 21 points and 5 rebounds from Spencer Butterfield.

  • Bakken are on a two-game winning streak in the BCL, after winning only one of their previous 17 games. The Danish team, who defeated Galatasaray 96-78 in their most recent home game in the BCL, are looking to win back-to-back home games for the first time in competition history.

  • Tenerife have three losses in their last four road games in the BCL, as many as in their previous 23 road games. They have however scored 100 or more points in each of their last two games, after doing so in three of their first 77 games in the competition.

  • Bakken average a joint league-high 16 offensive rebounds per game.

  • Tenerife lead the league in opponents' rebounds, allowing them to collect only 27.8 boards per game on average.

  • Tenerife are leading the league in made field goals with 33.4 per game and Bakken are in joint-second place, with 32.8 per contest on average (same as Hereda San Pablo Burgos).

  • Bakken's Q.J. Peterson scored 24 points off the bench in the reverse fixture, the most a player has ever scored off the bench against Tenerife in the BCL. Peterson is averaging 22 points per game in 28 minutes on average, leading all players with less than 30 minutes of average playing time this season.


Galatasaray (1-4) vs. Dinamo Sassari (3-2) -- Group A, 18:00 CET

 

  • Sassari will qualify if they beat Galatasaray, or if Bakken lose to Tenerife.

  • Galatasaray are coming off an 89-87 win over Orman in Turkish BSL league action on Saturday, behind 16 points and 8 rebounds from recent signing Amile Jefferson.

  • Sassari were also victorious at the weekend, beating Pesaro 99-74 at home in Italian Serie A action on Sunday, as Jason Burnell led six Dinamo players in double digits with his 17 points.

  • This will be Galatasaray's first BCL game since new head coach Ekrem Memnun took the reins, replacing Omer Ugurata on January 14th.

  • Sassari have parted ways with Justin Tillman and signed Ethan Happ, who started the season at Fortitudo and has just recovered from a shoulder injury.

  • Galatasaray have the worse defense in the league this season, giving up 91.8 points per game on average. The Turkish team also allow the most three-pointers, as Galatasaray opponents make 13 triples per game on average.

  • Sassari's defense though is only slightly better than Galatasaray's (4th from the bottom in the league) as the Italian team gives up 89.6 points per game on average.

  • Galatasaray are on a three-game losing slide in the BCL. Their 93-84 loss to Sassari in the reverse fixture in Italy is the only defeat they suffered by a single-digit margin in the competition.

  • Sassari lost their previous two games in Group A, after winning seven straight Regular Season games (including thee this season and four in the 2019-20 RS).

  • Sassari lost 115-85 at Tenerife in their most recent BCL outing, the worse defensive showing by any team playing on the road in competition history.

  • Brock Motum had 24 points in the reverse fixture, which remains the best scoring display by a Galatasaray player so far in the BCL.

  • Sassari's Miro Bilan is the joint second-leading rebounder in this season's BCL, averaging 8.2 boards per game. The Croatian center is also averaging 17 points per game, in what is by far the best season of his BCL career. - Bilan averaged 10.3 points and 4.6 rebounds per game in 2017-18, and then 11.7 points and 5.3 rebounds per game in 2019-20.


Tsmoki-Minsk (2-3) vs. AEK (3-2) -- Group C, 18:30 CET

 

  • For a full list of all Group C permutations, including the options that Minsk and AEK have to qualify to the Play-Offs, please click here.

  • Minsk are coming off an 80-75 home loss to Zielona Gora in VTB United league action on Sunday, despite a 12-point, 12-rebound double-double by Derek Cooke.

  • AEK suffered an 82-75 loss to Promitheas at home in Greek Basket League action on Saturday, despite 18 points and 6 rebounds from Yanick Moreira.

  • AEK defeated Minsk 95-69 in the reverse fixture in Athens, handing the Belarusian team their heaviest defeat in the BCL. That is the only game Minsk scored fewer than 70 points and the only game they gave up more than 90 points.

  • AEK have lost four of their last five Regular Season games on the road, after winning 11 of their previous 13. Including only RS games since the start of 2019-20, the Greek team average 74 points per game on the road compared with 85 points per game at home.

  • Minsk's assist-to-turnover ratio is 0.95 and they are the only team to average less than one assist per turnover this season. Minsk average only 15 assists per game.

  • By contrast, AEK's assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.2 is the third-highest in the league and the Greeks are among the three teams to average more than two assists per turnover. (Hapoel Jerusalem's ratio is 2.4 and Burgos is at 2.3).

  • Toms Leimanis has already had more points, rebounds and assists in five games this season than in his previous 10 BCL games combined. The Minsk point guard has 26, 9 and 9 in 2020-21 compared with 12, 4 and 2 in his career up to this season.

  • Yanick Moreira’s teams in the BCL have lost five of the seven games in which he came off the bench, including AEK’s two most recent games. AEK have won five of the six BCL games in which Moreira was a starter.

Cholet (2-3) vs. Hapoel Unet-Credit Holon (3-2) -- Group C, 18:30 CET

 

  • For a full list of all Group C permutations, including the options that Cholet and Holon have to qualify to the Play-Offs, please click here.

  • Cholet are coming off a 100-96 loss in overtime to Gravelines-Dunkerque in French league action on Saturday, despite a 32-point, 7-assist performance by Michael Stockton.

  • Holon meanwhile were 77-66 winners against Hapoel Tel Aviv in Balkan league action on Friday, behind 13 points from Chris Johnson.

  • Holon won 73-63 in the reverse fixture in Israel and that was Cholet's heaviest defeat in the BCL (they only joined the competition this season) as well as the only game the French team scored fewer than 75 points.

  • Holon have won the last three BCL games against teams from France, after winning only one of their previous four games against French opposition. The Israeli team averaged 87 points per game in their last three clashes with French teams, after averaging 66 points per game in the first four.

  • Holon make a league-low 14.2 two-point shots per game, while Cholet are third from bottom in made three-pointers, averaging only 6.6 made triples per game.

  • Cholet's Gerry Blakes played all 40 minutes in the reverse fixture, as one of only two players to have played an entire BCL game so far this season. Blakes had 25 points off the bench in Cholet's most recent game, against Tsmoki-Minsk, and that is the highest-scoring display by a Cholet player since the French club joined the competition.

  • Isaiah Miles is the only player to have scored in double figures in each of Holon’s five games this season. Holon won both games with Miles as a starter and lost two of the three games in which he came off the bench.