Vitor Benite, Gran Canaria: 'We grew today'

### Jaka Lakovic, Gran Canaria head coach

“Congratulations to the team for the win that keeps us in the race for the top spot in our group. I thought we started the game very well. Andrew \[Albicy\] with his aggressive defense and everybody else that followed showed us the way how we should play. But unfortunately, we didn’t continue with the same intensity and aggressiveness which brought us the result \[in the first quarter\]. It became a game and I am not happy about \[my players competing about\] who is going to score more points. This not the way we want to play or the way we want to win, so apart from the win we are going home \[realizing\] that we have to do much better.”

### Emanuele Molin, Dolomiti Energia Trento head coach

“Gran Canaria started really well, and after we fell behind it became very difficult to come back into the game. I think Gran Canaria had a big start defensively and put us in trouble quickly. They controlled the result, but we competed and, for me, that’s the most important thing. It’s a learning curve for my team.”

### Vitor Benite, Gran Canaria guard

"We started well but maybe we relaxed a little bit, so they came back. They have really talented players, they kept playing the whole game even when they were down by 9 or 10 points. Today the whole team made a great effort. Everybody scored, everybody passed the ball. It was a tough match but we grew today and we’ve got to keep doing that."

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Gran Canaria v Dolomiti Energia Trento (2023-03-08T20:00:00.000Z)

The London Lions  ground out a tough 76-83 win at Slask Wroclaw after Jordan Taylor and Miye Oni combined for 45 points to lead their team past the Polish side in an evenly balanced encounter on Wednesday. The winners improved to 7-8 in Group B's seventh place, while already-eliminated Slask fell to 1-14.

 Taylor, Oni lift London over Slask, 76-83 

The London Lions  ground out a tough 76-83 win at Slask Wroclaw after Jordan Taylor and Miye Oni combined for 45 points to lead their team past the Polish side in an evenly balanced encounter on Wednesday. The winners improved to 7-8 in Group B's seventh place, while already-eliminated Slask fell to 1-14.

Taylor racked up a joint career-high of 23 points and 7 rebounds while player of the game Oni posted a double-double of 22 points and 12 rebounds. Sam Dekker added 11 points and 6 rebounds for the Lions, who led for much of the contest and ran out worthy winners. Tomislav Zubcic added 12 points for the visitors, who had already qualified for post-season with games to spare. Lukasz Kolenda, Jeremiah Martin and new signing Vasilije Pusica scored 18 points each for Wroclaw. Artsiom Parakhouski netted 10 points for the home side.

A high-scoring first quarter saw London race into a 10-17 lead before Slask netted 5 unanswered points, but the visitors maintained their momentum and led 24-30 after 10 minutes on the back of 10 points from Oni. London was 5-for-7 from three-point range but the second quarter was a different story, as both teams started to struggle on offense.

London led 36-40 at halftime with Zubcic and Aaron Best taking over from Oni, while Taylor came to the fore after the break, enabling the visitors to keep Slask at bay in a hard-fought battle. The home side produced a 9-0 streak early in the third with Kolenda hitting a long triple, briefly jumping in the driving seat.

However, the Lions roared back and responded with a 12-4 run to turn the tables again and headed into the fourth quarter with a slender 61-62 advantage. The visiting team’s deeper roster made the difference in the final 10 minutes and they sealed the win when Taylor nailed a three-pointer to give London a 73-81 lead with 50 seconds left on the clock.

Taylor, Oni lift London over Slask, 76-83

Slask Wroclaw v London Lions (2023-03-08T17:45:00.000Z)

 Ryan Schmidt, London: 'A tough, gritty road win' 

### Ryan Schmidt, London head coach

"It feels good, although it wasn’t a pretty game by any means. You look back at this game and it was a tough, gritty road win. A lot of turnovers and uncharacteristic things we did at both ends of the court. But at crunch time, guys stepped up and made big plays for a big road win. Any time you win on the road in this competition, it’s huge. You take it and you get out of here.”

Ryan Schmidt, London: 'A tough, gritty road win'

Umana Reyer Venice booked its place in the playoffs with a resounding 90-64 in an all-Italian clash against Germani Brescia. In the first game with head coach Neven Spahija on the bench, Reyer improved to an 8-7 record in Group B and qualified for the playoffs. Brescia dropped to 7-8. Mithcell Watt led Reyer with 22 points, while Derek Willis scored 16 and Riccardo Moraschini added 10. Amedeo Della Valles scored 14 and John Petrucelli 12 for Brescia.

 Reyer thrashes Brescia in all-Italian derby 

Umana Reyer Venice booked its place in the playoffs with a resounding 90-64 in an all-Italian clash against Germani Brescia. In the first game with head coach Neven Spahija on the bench, Reyer improved to an 8-7 record in Group B, assuring in the process a top-eight finish. Reyer completed a 2-0 season sweep over Brescia and now has a share of the third-best record in the group. Meanwhile, Brescia dropped to 7-8.

The hosts pulled away for good with a 17-4 run to end the second quarter, then opened the third with an 18-5 spurt, opening a 26-point margin and never looking back. Mithcell Watt led Reyer with 22 points, while Derek Willis scored 16 and Riccardo Moraschini added 10. Amedeo Della Valles scored 14 and John Petrucelli 12 for Brescia.

Reyer stormed out of the gates with a 15-2 run behind Watt and Willis, the latter of whom joined with Jayson Granger for back-to-back triples. Three-pointers from Della Valle and Petrucelli got Brescia going from long range. Della Valle canned another and Christian Burns also hit from downtown, followed by David Cournooh's 3 points the hard way that cut the difference to 23-19. Willis and Jeff Brooks doubled the advantage early in the second before Della Valle and Petrucelli tied it at 30-30 with 5 minutes left until the half. Andrea Di Nicolao then hit a jumper that sparked Reyer's big run. He also nailed a three-pointer, Watt had a three-point play, and Brooks beat the buzzer with a layup to make it 47-34 at halftime.

Reyer continued where it left of after the break, with a dunk from Watt and 5 points from Willis, including a triple, as the hosts opened a 54-36 lead. Jordan Parks had 5 points, a triple and a big alley-oop dunk, and Watt kept adding to his tally as Reyer surged ahead 65-39. C.J. Massinburg gave Brescia some life, but Amedeo Tassitori and Moraschini extended the gap to 75-48 going into the fourth quarter and Reyer cruised the rest of the way.

Reyer thrashes Brescia in all-Italian derby

Umana Reyer Venice v Germani Brescia (2023-03-08T19:00:00.000Z)

 Neven Spahija, Reyer: 'We were pretty consistent' 

### Umana Reyer Venice head coach Neven Spahija

"We played a very good game. Brescia did not play at their level, probably because we did not give them a chance of playing great defense. There is not one part that is favorite. We started playing serious defense from first to last minute. We did not bounce, like we normally do; we were pretty consistent. That's the best part of this game."

### Germani Brescia head coach Alessandro Magro

"The level of the toughness and physicality, especially playing on the road, was not enough. Reyer certainly deserved the win this game. We need to go back home; sometime you need losses like this. We need to come back, build much more, and better. On offense, playing together, better level of the screens. And for sure we need to be more solid on defense. Allowing 90 points is a lot. We've got to start from there. It is still a long season. We have three more games, two at home, we will be fighting until the end."

### Umana Reyer Venice center Mitchell Watt

"We had a lot of fun tonight. We played together, the ball moved great. We defended really well. Hats off to Brescia, they are a really good offensive team, we held them to 64 points. Most of all, it looked like the guys had fun tonight."

Neven Spahija, Reyer: 'We were pretty consistent'

 Mihai Silvasan, Cluj: 'Happy for my players' 

### U-BT Cluj-Napoca head coach Mihai Silvasan

"A victory in this competition is a victory, especially if you are in our situation that we did not win much this season here. Still, we will fight in very game we have left to win. That's what happened tonight. We had a pretty good game, we scored some threes with good percentages. I am really happy for my players. They fought, they won, and they gave to this beautiful public a chance to be happy. We don't have a big chance for the playoffs. A miracle needs to happen. We need to take it game by game. We need to win every game and the other teams that have 7 wins need to lose everything. Our chance are not big, but we will play and see what happens."

### Frutti Extra Bursaspor head coach Dusan Alimpijevic

"In terms of the result, we were close. But in terms how we played, we were not close at all. And we did not deserve it. Congratulations to Cluj and their coach. They prepared the game against us great. We have three more games. We are far away from having home-court advantage in the playoffs. We are still not in the playoffs, and we need to fight for the playoffs. Once when we secure playoffs, we can talk about other things."

### U-BT Cluj-Napoca forward Jalen Jones

"It was a very tough game. It is a really good team over there. It came down to the end. We happened to make more stops than they did in the end. That's how we came out with a win. We have to take one game at the time, and control what we can control."

Mihai Silvasan, Cluj: 'Happy for my players'

U-BT Cluj-Napoca v Frutti Extra Bursaspor (2023-03-08T17:30:00.000Z)

U-BT Cluj-Napoca kept its playoff chances alive by holding off Frutti Extra Bursaspor 87-83 on Wednesday night. Cluj led by as many as 14 late in the third quarter, but had to fight until the end to win and improve to 5-10 in Group B, while Bursaspor dropped to a 7-8 record. Bursaspor, however, did take their tiebreaker, having won their Round 6 game by 15 points.

Cluj had six double-digit scorers led by Jalen Jones and Patrick Richard with 14 points each. Jones also collected 8 rebounds. Leo Meindl had 13 points and 8 rebounds, Nemanja Gordic scored 12, Karel Guzman 11 and Kasey Shepherd had 10 in the victory. Onuralp Bitim paced the visitors with 23 points plus 7 rebounds. Derek Needham scored 16 points, Zach Auguste had 13 points and 9 rebounds, while Aubrey Dawkins scored 11 in a losing effort.

Cluj came out firing behind Richard, who scored the hosts' first 5 points, including a three-pointer, followed by a triple from Shepherd and a three-point play from Meindl. Needham and Jones traded three-pointers, but another three from Richard made it 21-11. Dave Dudzinski had 6 first-quarter points, helping Bursaspor cut it to 24-18 after 10 minutes. Guzman restored a double-digit lead before Bitim hit from downtown. The teams kept trading scores and misses, with Bursaspor getting within 6 but never closer, while Cluj had 10-point leads, but never more than that until Meindl and Shepherd hit three-pointers in the final 30 seconds of the half to make it 49-37 at the break.

Bursaspor got right back in the game with Bitim scoring the first 7 points of the third quarter. A three from Needham cut it to 51-47 before Gordic answered with 5 consecutive points to spark a 7-0 run to get the lead back to 12 points. Gordic's triple extended it to 65-51, but Zach Auguste helped the visitors get within 68-58 at the end of the third. Bursaspor scored the first 7 points of the fourth, led by Anthony Clemmons, to get within 68-65. However, Stefan Bircevic and Guzman answered with three-pointers on the other end, and a fastbreak layup from Shepherd restored a double-digit margin, 76-65. Dawkins hit a pair of three-pointers to keep Bursaspor's hopes alive. Needham took it to the rim, then a steal by Dawkins led to a dunk by Bitim and 79-79 with 1:40 to go. After Richard and Bitim traded baskets, Guzman nailed a corner triple with 49 seconds left and Cluj made a key defensive stand to hold onto the victory.

Cluj stays alive, holds off Bursaspor 87-83

 Caleb Agada, Prometey: 'We can do something special' 

### Ronen Ginzburg, Prometey head coach

"It was a different game from the last one \[against Ulm\] at our place. Both teams played better defense. I think we played very good on defense. We controlled the offensive rebounds. So, I'm happy for this win. To keep Ulm to 78 points it's a big achievement. Usually, we are trying to be aggressive on defense. We have players who can do that. Sometimes it works, sometimes not."

### Anton Gavel, Ulm head coach 

"We had 20 turnovers and 16 offensive rebounds we allowed, and we still had a one-possession game with a few seconds on the clock. We gave ourselves a chance to get there, but with those kind of stats before, we ultimately weren't able to compete for the win against a team that is first in our group. It was difficult, and if you give them second opportunities then you are not going to win the game."

### Caleb Agada, Prometey player

"We've just been working hard all season, and we really believe we can do something special this year, and we just want to come out and prove it every single game. We knew coming in that these are two offensive-minded, fastbreak teams, so we knew the team that was going to play better defensively was probably going to come out on top."

Caleb Agada, Prometey: 'We can do something special'

ratiopharm Ulm v Prometey Slobozhanske (2023-03-08T18:30:00.000Z)

Lietkabelis advances with long-range masterclass

It was a do-or-die game for both teams on Wednesday night when Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana hosted 7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys. When the dust settled, the Lithuanian team won its fourth straight game in Group A, 87-94, and punched its playoffs ticket in the process.

The guests started the game rolling at 2-10, but after that they lost control of the situation and the hosts even jumped ahead, sometimes even reaching the six-point advantage that would have kept them alive for another week.

However, the solution for Lietkabelis came in the shape of three-pointers. The team ended with a solid 15 of 30 from downtown. Three players buried 13 of those 15 threes - Gediminas Orelik drained 5 of 9 for a game-best 22 points, Kristian Kullamae had an almost perfect 4 of 5 and Jamel Morris hit 4 of 8.

What the numbers do not tell is that many of those three-pointers came in key moments. Whether it was to counter a big play by the hosts to keep them from pulling away, or to silence a comeback attempt from Olimpija, the Lietkabelis snipers were always on guard to keep the game in a safe zone. Even the other two threes of the game - one by Stefan Peno, one by Paulius Murauskas - dropped just at the right moment.

The season will continue in the EuroCup for Lietkabelis, who will have a solid weapon by its side if it manages to keep shooting from long range like it did in Ljubljana.

Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana v 7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys (2023-03-08T19:00:00.000Z)