Four Euroleague teams returned to domestic action on Tuesday night. In Italy, Montepaschi Siena took the Supercoppa, while there were league wins for JSF Nanterre and Strasbourg IG in France. Lietuvos Rytas also won in the LKL but their victory at Juventus was marred by a brawl.
After a one and done display in the Euroleague qualifiers, Cimberio Varese looked to get one over on Italian kingpins Montepaschi Siena in the Supercoppa on Tuesday night. The EuroCup outfit managed to hold a one point lead at the break. Aubrey Coleman, 23 points and 7 rebounds, and Achille Polonara, 17 points and 7 rebounds, did the heavy lifting for Varese but they lacked the strength in depth to stay in the contest down the stretch. Siena bust them open with a big final quarter. That 29-19 final frame turned a competitive clash into a comfortable 81-66 victory for the Italian champions. Joshua Coleman led Siena in scoring with 18 points and picked up 4 boards while Daniel Hackett had 14 points and 6 rebounds.
There was no drama on the scoreboard, although plenty on the floor, as Lietuvos Rytas blew out Juventus in the LKL. Fresh off their success in the Euroleague qualifiers, the Vilnius club stormed to a 15 point lead by the end of the first quarter and the gap had grown to 47-27 by half-time. Dirk Bauermann’s side eventually secured a 92-67 road win but not before this went down…
There’s a better angle of the fracas here, starting around the 0:49 mark.
When the dust settled Dovydas Redikas and Tautyvdas Lydeka of Lietuvos Rytas were ejected, as were Ernestas Erzerskis and Simonas Kymantas of Juventus.
There were two tight contests in France as JSF Nanterre, the defending champions and Cinderella story of last year’s playoffs, eked out a 72-68 win in overtime at Nancy. Nanterre were dominated on the boards with Florent Pietrus recording a double-double for the home side with 12 points and 11 rebounds. A big second quarter for the visitors however gave them some breathing room and Nancy’s superior second half wasn’t enough to finish them off. That gave Nanterre just enough breathing room to escape with the win. Strasbourg, who fell to Nanterre in the opening round of the season, were also forced to sweat it out in their road win at Asvel Basket. Alexis Ajinca had a quiet evening but Kevin Murphy and Ricardo Greer picked up the slack. Murphy had 20 points while Greer scored 10 and picked up 10 boards. Strasbourg, who lost last year’s LNB Finals to Nanterre, led from the first quarter but the game exploded into life in the final frame with 54 points scored in the closing 10 minutes. Despite Edwin Jackson’s 23 points, the hosts couldn’t reel in Vincent Collet’s side and Strasbourg took the win 86-82.
