MANISA (Türkiye) - The first game of the day saw Filou Oostende claim the first spot in the Semi-Finals with a clean cut 90-68 win over Galatasaray.
Next up was the Group A clash between Aliaga Petkimspor and YBCL powerhouse Igokea m:tel. The Turkish club from Izmir righted the wrongs from their opening day loss against Ludwigsburg and secured a 67-54 win against an injury-depleted Igokea squad.
The final two games of the day saw the champs drop a century and announce their return with a dominant 101-71 win over Pallacanestro Reggiana, and Tofas Bursa made all the noise in the last game of the day, as they out-hustled Spartak Office Shoes en route to a 86-74 victory.
Let's dive in and look at the key takeaways from the day's games.
#1 CHEMISTRY IS KING
Filou Oostende rode the chemistry of their shorter rotation to get the job done against Galatasaray, despite playing the second game of a back-to-back.
Six players were on court for 20 minutes or more for Oostende, with five of them playing over 30 minutes.
After that, the next player in the rotation played 7 minutes, as Oostende leaned heavily Tim Waerniers, Vince T'Joncke, Daan Pieters, Lars Coppejans, Edo Bruins, and Jules Rotsaert to get the job done against Galatasaray.
You can read all about Oostende's Finesse Four here but to give you a brief rundown, this Ooostende team has a way of playing together, spacing the floor, moving the ball, and making the game easier for themselves.
In game 1 they shot the lights out, in this game they leveraged the threat of their shooters to shoot 67 percent from inside the arc and 70 percent in the paint.
Gala did take a 24-21 lead with eight minutes to play in the second quarter, but from there Oostende's offense clicked and they passed their Turkish opponents into submission.
Tim Waerniers was a silent assassin again with 19 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists, whilst shooting 73 percent from the field. Daan Pieters also had 19 points and added 7 assists and 6 rebounds to go with them.
Lars Coppejans had his own 19 point explosion, with 3 rebounds and a handy 45.5 percent shooting clip from deep, and Vince T'Joncke continued his assault on the box scores with 16 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists, whilst shooting 40 percent from three-point territory.
#2 NEVER GIVE UP
After being outworked by Ludwigsburg in Game 1, Petkimspor found themselves needing an unlikely win against YBCL stalwarts and 2023 winners Igokea if they wanted any chance at making the Semi-Finals.
Given Igokea's track record in this competition, the odds looked stacked against Petkimspor finding a way to get that win, especially as they were on the second half of a back-to-back and Igokea were coming in fresh.
But basketball is never predictable and again this game we all love proved that it rewards those who don't give up.
It is worth noting that this Igokea squad is short-handed and came into the tournament missing key players to injury, but Petkimspor won't care about that. They will be riding high from this win and watching intently as Igokea take on Ludwigsburg on Gameday 3.
Suleyman Deniz Pulat led the scorers for Petkim with 17 points, 6 assists, and 4 rebounds. He was well supported by Onur Aslaner with 14 points from four made three-pointers.
Petkimspor also made their size count with nine blocks, seven (!) of them coming from seven-footer Ahmet Kerim Andic.
#3 THE CHAMPS WILL BE TOUGH TO STOP
As if you needed to read this story to know that Rytas Vilnius are going to be a force to be reckoned with again this year.
Rytas took on Reggiana in what was their first game of the tournament but also almost certainly the decider when it came to topping the group and making it to the Semi-Finals. Luckily for them they had five returning players from last year's championship winning squad to lean on.
Adomas Pocius, Mantas Liutkevicius, Erikas Sirgedas, MVP Ignas Urbonas, and Matas Deniusas all played in the Final last year and all made their presence felt on Rytas' tournament opener.
Liutkevicius had 18 of his 21 points, without missing a shot from the field, in his first 11 minutes.
Urbonas had a quiet 19 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists on 86 percent shooting, and never really got out of third gear.
Sirgedas and Gabrielius Bubnys also had 13 points each for the Lithuanians who dropped 101 points on 34 made field goals from 31 assists.
That is the definition of teamwork makes the dreamwork right there.
#4 DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS
As the old cliche goes, offense wins games but defense wins championships and Tofas are clearly planning on proving the saying right once more.
The 2023 champions and 2024 bronze-medallists came into the gym making as much noise as you'd expect from a team that knew they were about to hustle and harass their opponents into submission.
Some context does need to be added that Spartak were on the end of a back-to-back but they just couldn't live with Tofas' intensity levels on the defensive end, nor their relentless will to run and push the ball in transition.
Hustle plays like the one in the video below from Enes Akman were very much the order of the day for Tofas.
We spoke about Rytas' returning cast, well, Akman is also one of five for Tofas who played in last year's competition.
Point guard Yucel Cagin Basaran is back and celebrated with 15 points, 5 assists, and 5 steals, whilst Akman had 18 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals.
Alp Doruk Sancakli enjoyed a much bigger role than last year with 9 points on 80 percent shooting and then there was Ahmet Berkay Gonul and Emirhan Serbest who both put up huge double-doubles.
Gonul with 16 points and 12 rebounds, whilst Serbest had an impressive statline, with 14 points, 10 rebounds, 3 rebounds and 4 blocks, several of them accompanied by staredowns to get the message across that Tofas mean business this year.