The last round of the BCL second stage ready to start
The last round of the Basketball Champions League’s second group stage will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, and a lot is still in play. So far, we only know three of the eight qualified teams.
In Group J Galatasaray will host Manisa in Istanbul in a Turkish derby. The hosts need a win to secure second place while the visitors are already eliminated. Galata also won the first encounter between the two teams when the two met in February (the score then was 96-85) so they are heavy favourites in this one. Rytas will host Unicaja Malaga in the same group but in Vilnius. The team from Andalusia is already qualified, while the Lithuanians need help from Manisa too to have a chance to qualify. In Spain, Unicaja easily won by 18 points but now Rytas might be the more motivated team.
In Group K in Reggio Emilia, Reggiana can secure the quarterfinal spot with a win against Petkim Spor. The Turkish team doesn’t have any chance to get to the second spot, so Reggiana should be able to win. Otherwise, they would need the undefeated Tenerife to defend its home court and a perfect record in the Spanish derby against Manresa.
On Thursday we will have the matchups from the other two groups. In Group I in an all-Greek matchup Promitheas will host AEK Athens. However it will be a game with no real stake, as AEK is already qualified while Promitheas is eliminated. The other matchup will be the one to watch, where Tortona and Wurzburg will fight for qualification. It should be a very close game just like in their first meeting, when Wurzburg won by one point in Germany.
Finally, in Group L we don’t have any qualified teams yet. We only know that Falco Szombathely doesn’t have any chances left, so Nanterre is the favourite in Hungary. In Spain, Murcia will host first-placed Nymburk. It will be a very interesting matchup as Nymburg won by 15 points in the first game so Murcia will need to beat this margin to go ahead of the Czech team.
Imre Halasz
Image: FIBA
