MANISA (Türkiye) - The tournament opener in 2025 saw Porsche BBA Ludwigsburg running their opponents Aliaga Petkimspor out of the gym and recording a dominant 89-60 win.
The second game was a much tighter affair with Filou Oostende overcoming fellow BCL stalwarts Telekom Baskets Bonn, 95-88.
Serbian newcomers Spartak Office Shoes made a great first impression with a dominant 92-73 win over ERA Nymburk in the third game of the day and fellow newcomers Pallacanestro Reggiana also made their mark against hosts Manisa BBSK.
They picked up a handy 80-51 win to start their maiden campaign in the YBCL.
Let's take a look at the key takeaways from the day.
#1 ENERGY IS FREE
From the warm ups it was clear that Turkish club Petkimspor would have size mismatches up front over their German opponents, Ludwigsburg.
But Petkimspor weren't allowed to make that size count due to the energy, athleticism, and pure force of will of the team in white.
Ludwigsburg head coach Khee Rhee will have been delighted by the way his team turned up the temperature on defense and enforced a tempo that made sure the game was played up and down the full 92 feet for 40 minutes.
They led the game front to back for 39 minutes.
Ludwigsburg snaffled up 14 turnovers and forced 23 turnovers, then converted those turnovers into an eye-catching 32 fast break points, whilst holding their opponents to just 10.
The dominance was apparent across all of the energy and effort stats. They won the rebounding battle 43-32, including 14 offensive rebounds for the Germans.
Second chance points was a similar story with Ludwigsburg converting those offensive rebounds into 11 second chance points.
And despite the size mismatch, they also won the points in the paint, 52-24. It was an utterly dominant start to the tournament for Ludwigsburg.
Armin Pivac had a near double-double with 13 points and 9 rebounds, whilst Lars Lenke top-scored, throwing down multiple dunks on his way to 16 points and 5 rebounds.
#2 SHOOTING MATTERS
From the opening two possessions of the second game of the day, it was clear we had a much more competitive contest on our hands.
Bonn opened the game with Carlo Schmid whipping the crowd up into a storm with a huge dunk.
Oostende, unfazed, sprinted the ball straight down the other end and knocked down a corner three-ball from Tim Waerniers.
Bonn led the entire first quarter and took their biggest lead of the game at the start of the second when Luca Forster three-pointer put them up 31-25.
Despite the German's strong start, the warning signs of Oostende's biggest threat were already visible in the first quarter, when they shot 4-of-9 from deep.
When a 6-0 run gave them their first lead at 46-45, control of the game had completely changed hands.
Waerniers threw down a dunk and splashed a three-ball to give Oostende a dominant 60-50 lead in the third quarter and the game looked won for the Belgians.
Bonn staged a comeback and even re-took the lead, 79-77 in the fourth.
As was the pattern for the whole game, it was Oostende's shooting that got the job done for them as back-to-back jumpshots from Edo Bruins broke the game and put them back up 82-79 with 4 minutes to play.
Oostende won out 95-88, mainly thanks to their 14 made three-pointers on 45 percent shooting.
Waerniers top-scored with 23 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists. He was supported by four other teammates shooting over 40 percent from deep, Lars Coppejans (21 points), Daan Pieters (17 points), Vince T'Joncke with a near triple-double of 14 points, 9 assists, and 7 assists, then finally Edo Bruins with 11 points.
#3 SPEED KILLS
Nymburk took their final lead of the game when they went up 18-16 with 2 minutes to go in the first quarter.
Once their opponents from Subotica, Serbia found their flow, there was only ever going to be one winner in this game.
Spartak dominated points from turnovers, with 24 to Nymburk's 9, fastbreak points with 24 to Nymburk's 12, points in the paint with 54 to Nymburk's 38, and bench scoring with 42 to Nymburk's 9.
The major difference between the two teams was the depth of Spartak's bench and the break-neck speed that allowed them to play the game at.
The Serbian team pushed the ball relentlessly and maintained a level of pressure on the rim that their Czech opponents struggled to live with.
Nymburk got big contributions from their twin towers, Krystof Davidek and Thomas Stanko, who both put up double-doubles. Stanko had 24 points and 11 rebounds, whilst Davidek had 14 points and 19 rebounds.
Those 19 rebounds, incidentally, equaled a YBCL record held by Tenerife's Mohamed Sangare since Year 1.
The difference for Spartak was that contributions came from every corner of the roster. They were led by Aleksandar Nedeljkovic with 18 points but got scoring from ever player who saw minutes on the floor aside from Simon Grubanov, and even then Grubanov had a game-high 8 assists.
Pavle Steljic and Srdan Bakula had 16 and 14 points respectively to round off their top scorers as Spartak's backcourt was too fast and too good on the day.
#4 REBOUNDS WIN MATCHES
The final game of the day served up a duel of the debutants, with both Pallacanestro Reggiana and hosts Manisa BBSK making their YBCL bow.
Reggiana took their time to get going and never really hit their stride, but it was still enough to claim a comfortable win in front of an excellent home crowd.
Manisa did react well to the home support and made some big plays like the dunk in the video below from Efe Tercan.
The biggest difference between the two sides was apparent before a ball was bounced in anger. Reggiana had advantages when it came to height, length, strength, and athleticism.
And they made them count too.
The recorded 53 rebounds, including 19 on the offensive glass, forced 25 Manisa turnovers, and blocked 8 shots.
Such was the rim protection offered by Reggiana's frontline that they held Manisa to just 28 percent shooting overall, and only 26 points in the paint.
On the other end, Reggiana enjoyed 40 points in the paint and scored 32 fastbreak points, often running from a missed shot and commanding rebound.
Alessandro Manfredotti top-scored in the game with 15 points and was supported by Italian international Pablo Abreu and Riccardo Selva who had 14 points each.
El Hadji Deme dominated the paint for Reggiana with 16 rebounds and 4 blocks.