20 October, 2020
09 May, 2021
5 Kyan Anderson (SZOM), 9 Kamil Laczynski (LUBL)
15/12/2020
News
to read

Week 7 Wednesday games preview

MIES (Switzerland) - Wednesday sees all four Group D teams take to the court for their third game of the season, while the three-game slate concludes with a Group A clash that is pivotal for both teams involved, albeit in different ways.

Here's a closer look at the three Wednesday encounters:

Casademont Zaragoza (2-0) vs. Falco Szombathely (1-1) -- Group D, 17:00 CET

Dylan Ennis has been in great form of late, but the only time he went scoreless in a BCL game was against Falco

  • Zaragoza have signed point guard TJ Bray, who is poised to make his BCL debut on Wednesday, and parted ways with Slovenian international Luka Rupnik who played in the first two games of the season.

  • Zaragoza are coming off their largest-margin win of the season so far, as they defeated RETAbet Bilbao 105-76 at home in Spanish Liga Endesa action on Sunday, behind 21 points from Robin Benzing and 18 points from Jason Thompson.

  • Falco meanwhile where in domestic league action and defeated DEAC 77-71 at home, as Zoltan Perl poured in 20 points in 22 minutes of action. Falco are marching undefeated in the Hungarian league, having won five out of five games.

  • Zaragoza have an all-time 8-1 record at home in the BCL and gave up fewer than 80 points in eight of those nine games.

  • Falco on the other hand have an all-time 1-6 record on the road in the BCL, albeit they are yet to play on the road in the 2020-21 season.

  • Zaragoza, who have played two games so far in 2020-21, score a league-high 12.5 points off turnovers per game and force opponents to commit 17 turnovers per game, a league joint-high (alongside JDA Dijon).

  • Falco give up only 4 second-chance points per game on average, fewer than any other team so far in 2020-21.

  • Zaragoza's Dylan Ennis, who has scored 13 or more points in each of his last four BCL appearances, went scoreless in only one game in his career in the competition and that was precisely against Falco, in January 2020.

  • Falco's Zoltan Perl scored at least 14 in each of his last four appearances in the BCL, his longest double-digit scoring streak in the competition. The Hungarian international scored at least 14 points in each of his two previous BCL encounters with Zaragoza.


Pszczólka Start Lublin (0-2) vs. Nizhny Novgorod (1-1) -- Group D, 18:30 CET


Sherron Dorsey-Walker is the only Lublin player to have scored in double digits in both their BCL games so far

  • Lublin were last in Polish league action on December 6 and they defeated Enea Astoria Bydgoszcz 107-101 in overtime as Kamil Lączyński led six Lublin players in double digits with his 19 points and added 8 rebounds.

  • Nizhny on the other hand have not played in the VTB United League since their latest game in the BCL, on Wednesday December 9, when they defeated Falco 93-88 on the road.

  • Lublin have yet to taste victory in the BCL, as this is their maiden season in the competition. Nizhny won their most recent road game, at Falco, but haven't won consecutive games on the road in the BCL since October-November 2019.

  • Lublin are leading the league in fast break points, as they averaged 18 fast break points over their first two games.

  • Sherron Dorsey-Walker is the only Lublin player to have scored in double digits in each of their two BCL games so far, and he is shooting 60 percent (3 of 5 on average) from three-point range.

  • Nizhny's Ivan Strebkov posted his first double-double in the BCL in Week 5 action, when he had 12 points and 11 assists against Falco Szombathely. Interestingly, The Russian forward is averaging 10 points per game on the road and 8.4 points per game at home in the BCL.


Dinamo Sassari (3-0) vs. Bakken Bears (0-3) -- Group A, 20:30 CET

Q.J. Peterson of Bakken Bears is the league's second-leading scorer

  • Sassari will seal their passage to the Play-Offs if they win this game. A win for the Italian team will also mean that Iberostar Tenerife secure the other ticket from this group, leaving Bakken Bears (as well as Galatasaray) out of contention. 

  • Sassari are coming off a 97-93 win over Treviso at home on Sunday, behind a 20-point, 10-rebound double-double by Jason Burnell, and have improved to 5-4 in the Italian Serie A standings.

  • Bakken were in action on Saturday in the Danish league and they enjoyed a 112-59 rout of Amagen, as Darko Jukic collected a double-double of 17 points and 13 rebounds. The Bears have improved to 10-1 on the domestic league table.

  • Sassari have a 10-1 record in their last 11 home games in the BCL and scored at least 91 points in four of their last five games at home.

  • Bakken, who are looking for their first ever road win in the BCL, lost each of their previous nine road games by a double-digit margin.

  • Bakken give up an average of 96.7 points per game on the road, the second-worst defensive record on the road in BCL history after Opava, who gave up 100.1 points per game.

  • Sassari have a league-high defensive rebounding rate of 75 percent.

  • Sassari's Marco Spissu is averaging 15 points, 9 assists and 5.7 rebounds per game this season, up from 7.7 points, 3.7 assists and 2.2 rebounds over his two previous BCL seasons. Spissu is shooting 67 percent from three-point range and 100 percent from the free-throw line this season.

  • Bakken's Q.J. Peterson is the second-leading scorer in this season's BCL (not including Tuesday's games) averaging 21.3 points per game. Peterson and DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell of Tofas are the only two players to have scored 18 or more points in each of their three games this season.