The Top16 of the BCL will be balanced
The 2025-26 Basketball Champions League season entered its Group 16 stage, and we can already see from this week’s Round 1 games that there will be a big fight for the quarterfinal spots.
On Tuesday, we had the first four games and the most anticipated one was played in Turkey between Tofas and Alba Berlin. The home team got an early double-digit lead in the first quarter (16-6) and even had a 13-point lead in the second quarter (40-27). However, Alba made a strong comeback in the second half and dominated the last quarter, winning the game by four points (90-94). Malte Delow and Jack Kayil led the scoring for the German team that secured a huge win for their quest to the quarterfinals. The other game of group J was played on Wednesday between AEK Athens and AS Karditsas. Just like a few days before in the Greek League when the two teams faced each other, AEK won again and this time they needed a very strong fourth quarter. Karditsas was leading by 6 points entering the last quarter, but AEK managed to turn the game around and won 88-73. Veteran guard Lukas Lekavicius was the hero for AEK, scoring 28 points. At this point, Alba Berlin and AEK seem to be the favourites to advance, but Tofas has its chances too.
Group I is also very balanced, and we had a surprising result this round as well. Le Mans defeated Galatasaray in Istanbul 83-90, while Rytas Vilnius won as expected at home against Hapoel Holon 106-81. It’s safe to say that it’s still too early and Galatasaray is still the favourite to advance, but the Turkish side cannot afford many more mistakes.
Group K features two big favourites, and it would be a surprise if they don’t advance further. We are talking about the two Spanish teams, and while Joventut didn’t have any issues defeating Chalon, Unicaja Malaga did struggle against Wurzburg, winning by only 5 points at home.
Finally, in Group L, we also have two Spanish teams that are considered to have the best chances to advance, but Gran Canaria suffered a home defeat against Trieste (71-77) that complicated these calculations. Meanwhile, Tenerife confirmed its favourites status and won comfortably against the Czech side Nymburk (104-80).
Imre Halasz
Photo credit: BCL
