MIES (Switzerland) - There are easy victories and wins that remain in everyone's minds due to amazing comebacks. Wednesday night in the Basketball Champions League, powered by Ameresco SUNEL had both.
Most definitely, this four-game schedule will be remember for one of the craziest comebacks in the competition's history, which took place in Azerbaijan.
Sabah BC 87-89 Elan Chalon
Elan Chalon started their second campaign in the BCL displaying a contender status after getting to Season X through the Qualifiers: 3-0 with two impressive road wins and a comfortable home victory against Sabah BC.
If these ten seasons of BCL have taught us something, however, is that you can't take anything for granted. If an unbeaten team go up against a winless side, it can also happen that the latter pull off the upset. Almost.
Sabah had the best performance of their debut season thus far up until 4:16 minutes to go in the third quarter, when they were up by 21 points (73-52).
That's when Chalon started to prove why they really are ones to watch.
Getting back possession after possession, they eventually won 89-87 away from France, extending their winning streak and staying unbeaten at 4-0 in Group B.
The game-winning shot was a three-pointer by Jordan Tucker, who scored all of his 23 points (5-of-7 from beyond the arc and 8-of-9 at the line) in the second half.
Justyn Mutts added 14 points, while Lionel Gaudoux flirted with a double-double at 8 points and 12 rebounds.
"Congratulations to Sabah because they’re getting better and better. We were in big trouble for a large part of the game. There’s no doubt they’ll win a game before the end of the group. It took us some time to figure out what was going on," Chalon's head coach Elric Delord commented.
Keith Jordan (28 points over 9-of-13 from the field) was Sabah's leader, while Gerry Blakes added 17 points and 5 assists, but also recorded 9 turnovers. Hassani Gravett (18 points and 8 assists) had another all-around night.
Rimas Kurtinaitis' team went inches away from their first-ever BCL victory as they displayed a shooting clinic from two (60.1%) and from the perimeter (50.0% over 26 attempts).
Mersin Sports Club 77-100 Unicaja
From a comeback for the ages to a dominant win shaped at the tip-off and concluded at the final buzzer, on a night that featured even a full-court buzzer-beater.
While Chalon and Sabah each had their ruling portion of the game, Unicaja completely took care of business in Türkiye, winning 100-77 against Mersin Sports Club.
Ibon Navarro's team have now won 13 of their last 14 games played on the road in the BCL, including the last 6. Everybody stepped on the floor for the reigning back-to-back champions and five players ended in double-digits.
Among them, Aleksander Balcerowski (18 points and 5 rebounds) keeps on improving after starting Season X scoreless in the reverse fixture against Mersin.
Tyson Perez (14 points and 5 rebounds) and James Webb III (12 points and 9 rebounds) also gave their contribution to Unicaja's fourth consecutive win in Group G.
Mersin also had five players finishing in double-digits, including the team's leading scorer Ronald March Jr (14 points). They were out-rebounded 38-28 and out-assisted 30-15 by Unicaja, while committing 14 turnovers.
AEK BC 95-64 VEF Riga
Both BCL Final Four participants in 2024-25 featuring on Wednesday action got significant victories which pushed them to 4-0 in the Regular Season.
While Unicaja had the comfortable upper hand on the road, AEK BC enjoyed the 95-64 win against VEF Riga, staying perfect in Group F. This was also their 10th consecutive home victory in the BCL Regular Season.
The Queen's 24-7 run in the third period was necessary to create separation against the Latvians following the perfect equilibrium (41-41) of the first half.
Frank Bartley's offensive efficiency continues for Dragan Sakota's team, as the former PAOK player led the black-and-yellow powerhouse in scoring with his season-high 23 points over 10-of-14 from the field.
Chris Silva made his presence felt at the board, going close to a double-double with 16 points and 9 rebounds. He also stole the show with a thunderous poster dunk over Rostyslav Novitskyi in the first quarter.
Arnaldo Toro (8 points and 14 rebounds) tried his best to slow him down and to help Riga stay alive, but the black-and-white side will return to Latvia with their 19th straight road loss in the BCL and an 0-4 record.
ERA Nymburk 75-88 ALBA BERLIN
Starting their first season in the BCL with the home defeat to Chalon, ALBA BERLIN's winning streak is now to three games following their 75-88 road victory against ERA Nymburk. They have also won seven straight games in all competitions now.
Except for a short lead by Nymburk that lasted for only 2:53 minutes in the first quarter, ALBA was always in control in Czechia, never looking back in the second half.
Pedro Calles' team out-assisted Nymburk 26-14 and forced the opponents to 21 turnovers, scoring 24 points off them.
"I think the key of the game was rebounding battle. I think that in the first half the numbers was 11 offensive rebounds for Nymburk, one for ALBA BERLIN. And the numbers in the 2nd half were two for Nymburk and nine for ALBA BERLIN," coach Calles said.
Five players scored in double-digits for ALBA, including Norris Agbakoko (13 points over 6-of-8 off the bench) and Sam Griesel (12 points and 7 assists).
Martin Hermannsson had another day at the office controlling the team's offensive flow, finishing with 8 assists.
Despite the defeat, Sir' Jabari Rice continued to display his offensive showcase, finishing with a team-high losing effort of 28 points over 8-of-12 from the field and 11-of-12 at the charity stripe.