SAMOKOV (Bulgaria) - There's one more day of action in Samokov in the Basketball Champions League Qualification Round Tournaments, with the two Finals set to take place on September 20.
Friday already featured fantastic matchups, with Salon Vilpas and CSM CSU Raiffeisen Oradea getting to the QRT1 Final, ready to grab the ticket for the Group Stage at 17:00 CET.
Saturday offered us two more exciting 40-minute clashes in Samokov before Sunday's Grand Finale. Stay with us to find out what happened in the BCL QRT2 Semi-Finals.
Dziki Warszawa 113-110 Rio Breogan Lugo
It must be a job for Italian head coaches appearing for the first time in the BCL QRTs.
Two years ago, Francesco Tabellini's ERA Nymburk made their way to the QRT Final and then won it all. Now, in Samokov, Marco Legovich's Dziki Warszawa had another convincing night to upset another opponent.
After taking VEF Riga out of contention, they beat Rio Breogan Lugo 113-110 and qualified for the QRT2 Final.
For the third straight encounter, Poland's representative grabbed the win by scoring in triple digits, showing an outstanding offensive flow and force.
They went up by 23 points (89-66) in the third quarter and survived Breogan's late comeback push.
Dziki had five players finish in double digits, with one specific protagonist propelling them to their last appointment of the Qualifying Stage: Joseph Girard III, who had 32 points, 7 assists, and 4 rebounds.
Francis Alonso had the three to bring Breogan down by one point (111-110), but missed the one to force overtime at the end. He had a losing effort of 29 points over 7-of-11 from deep in 21:58 minutes on the court.
As mentioned previously, the Polish side are now one victory away from playing in their first-ever BCL Regular Season, as well as becoming the 10th team from Poland to play in the competition.
In order to do so, they will need to go 4-0 in the QRT2 and win the Final, scheduled on September 20th at 19:30 CET, against RASTA Vechta, which looked impressive in their Semi-Final.
Promitheas Patras BC 73-103 RASTA Vechta
Indeed, while the first Semi-Final on Saturday was about deciding the final outcome until the very last seconds, Vechta dominated all throughout their encounter with Promitheas Patras BC to win 103-73.
Overall, Christian Held's team led for 37:33 minutes, looking unstoppable from the first to the last stanza. Armaan Franklin and Matt Lewis combined for 45 points to pave the way for the German representative.
Shannon Evans was huge for Promitheas in the QRT2 Quarter-Finals, but his 15-point losing effort against the Germans wasn't enough for the Greeks; Kendal Coleman also scored 15 points and grabbed 4 rebounds.
The orange side will now have to beat an impressive Dziki's team to return to the BCL Regular Season, where they have already played twice, in 2019-20 and 2024-25.