SAMOKOV (Bulgaria) - The Finnish champions Salon Vilpas won the Basketball Champions League Qualification Round Tournament 1 in Samokov, Bulgaria, becoming only the second team from Finland to make the Regular Season, ten years after Kataja in 2016-17.
Throughout the whole tournament, Leland Walker put on a show, scoring 29 points against Patrioti Levice in the Quarter-Finals, 33 against Bakken Bears Aarhus in the Semi-Finals, and 42 against CSM CSU Raiffeisen Oradea in the Final.
The 23-year-old guard is now the only player who has scored more than 40 points in a single game across the 11-year-long history of the BCL Qualification Round Tournaments.
PLAYER | TEAM | OPPONENT | DATE | POINTS SCORED |
Leland Walker | Salon Vilpas | CSM CSU Raiffeisen Oradea | 20/09/2026 | 42 |
Ivan Almeida | SL Benfica | Brose Bamberg | 25/09/2022 | 39 |
Darius McGhee | Telekom Baskets Bonn | MoraBanc Andorra | 20/09/2024 | 37 |
Tony Carr | Bakken Bears | FMP Meridian | 25/09/2022 | 34 |
Will Carius | Patrioti Levice | Bakken Bears | 25/09/2025 | 33 |
Justin Wright-Foreman | Brose Bamberg | Budivelnyk | 23/09/2022 | 33 |
D'Angelo Harrison | Prometey | Opava | 16/09/2021 | 33 |
Leland Walker | Salon Vilpas | Bakken Bears | 18/09/2026 | 33 |
Vilpas will now play against last season's BCL Finalists AEK BC, the Hungarian champions Falco KC Szombathely, and the Belgian champions Windrose Giants Antwerp in Group C of the Regular Season, powered by Ameresco SUNEL.