•	Hapoel Vegan Friendly Tel Aviv, has been sanctioned with a fine of 10,000 Euros due to the lighting of flares by its fans, on occasion of its away game against Veolia Towers Hamburg under Article 29.2.e) of the Euroleague Basketball Disciplinary Code.

Euroleague Basketball has announced the following disciplinary sanction pertaining to incidents that occurred in Round 7 of the 7DAYS EuroCup regular season.

Round 7 disciplinary sanction

Promitheas Patras arrived to Paris without Trevis Simpson. The 7DAYS EuroCup's leading scorer, Joe Young, travelled but couldn't play in the end. Luckily for Promitheas, Anthony Cowan was fit. He made the difference for a good-as-gold 71-74 Group B road win over Paris Basket. 

Cowan saved short-handed Promitheas in Paris

Promitheas Patras arrived to Paris without Trevis Simpson. The 7DAYS EuroCup's leading scorer, Joe Young, travelled but couldn't play in the end. Luckily for Promitheas, Anthony Cowan was fit. He made the difference for a good-as-gold 71-74 Group B road win over Paris Basket. 

Cowan, a 1.85-meter point guard, stepped up after halftime to score 17 of his 21 points in the final 15 minutes. He buried a couple of three-pointers late in the third quarter to keep Promitheas in charge, 47-51, and kept going to give the visitors a 61-66 lead mid-way through the fourth. 

Paris managed to get a 68-67 lead with 34 seconds left but Cowan proved perfect from the foul line, hitting 4 of 4 attempts to make sure Promitheas returned to Greece with a prestigious road victory. The winners are now tied with Paris and Buducnost VOLI Podgorica for third place with 5-3 records.

Anthony Cowan had 21 points to lead Promitheas Patras to a 71-74 road win against Paris Basketball. He had 17 points in the final 15 minutes.

Cowan leads Promitheas to road win in Paris

In the end, Cowan buried 4 of 10 three-pointers and 9 of 11 free throws on his way to a career-high 21 points. Cowan also had personal-best marks in fouls drawn, 9, and PIR, 24. His previous PIR record was 11 against Gran Canaria in Round 2. 

"It is definitely a big one for us, especially having two big-time players out," Cowan said after the game. "But definitely a big win coming in and staying locked in. I am happy that we were able to bring it out."

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Paris Basketball v Promitheas Patras (2022-12-14T19:30:00.000Z)

Spissu led all scorers in Round 8 with 27 points. Joe Young of Promitheas Patras remains the EuroCup leader with 24.5 points per game. Ismael Kamagate of Paris Basketball had 13 rebounds, more than any other player in this round. Alpha Kaba of Buducnost VOLI Podgorica is the rebounding leader this season with 11.5 boards per game. Three players had 9 assists in Round 8: Ulm's Dos Santos, J'Cowan Brown of Hapoel Vegan Friendly Tel Aviv and Jerian Grant of Turk Telekom. Brown leads the EuroCup with 7.3 assists per game. Andres Feliz of Joventut had 5 steals, the most in Round 8. Prometey's Kennedy and Jeremiah Martin of Slask Wroclaw share the lead in steals this season with 2.6 per contest. This round's top shot-blocker was Tyrique Jones of Turk Telekom with 4 blocked shots. Kamagate leads the EuroCup in blocks with 2.1 per game.

Individual highs: Andres Feliz, Joventut, 5 steals

With the best performance of his 7DAYS EuroCup career, Prometey Slobozhanske veteran center Ondrej Balvin not only led his team to a resounding 105-82 win over U-BT Cluj-Napoca, but also earned his first MVP of the Round honor in six seasons in the competition. Balvin scored 10 of his career-high 23 points in a key third quarter that paved the way for Prometey's win. For the night, Balvin was perfect 6-for-6 on two-pointers and 2-for-2 on threes while making 5 of his 6 free throws. Along with 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals, Balvin accumulated a career-best performance index rating of 34, the highest among players whose teams won in Round 8.

With the best performance of his 7DAYS EuroCup career, Prometey Slobozhanske veteran center Ondrej Balvin not only led his team to a resounding 105-82 win over U-BT Cluj-Napoca, but also earned his first MVP of the Round honor. Balvin scored 10 of his career-high 23 points in a key third quarter that paved the path for Prometey's win.

Ondrey Balvin | Round 8 MVP | 2022-23 7DAYS EuroCup

The highest PIR in Round 8 belonged to Marco Spissu of Umana Reyer Venice in a dramatic 90-87 loss against Joventut Badalona. Spissu had 27 points, 4 assists and 3 rebounds for a PIR of 35. The next-best PIR, 33, belonged to Prometey's DJ Kennedy, who collected 23 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 steals. Yago Dos Santos had a PIR of 29 in ratiopharm Ulm's 110-98 win over Mincidelice Bourg en Bresse, finishing with 18 points, 9 assists, 2 rebounds and 5 drawn fouls. Rounding out the list of Round 8's top performers were Jerian Grant of Turk Telekom Ankara and Andres Feliz of Joventut, each with an index rating of 28.

Round 8 MVP: Ondrej Balvin, Prometey Slobozhanske

Prometey Slobozhanske v U-BT Cluj-Napoca (2022-12-14T17:00:00.000Z)

Congratulations to Kirill Hurmazov, who is the EuroCup Fantasy Challenge winner for Round 8! His team Slava Ukraine posted a score of 253.

The team featured the following lineup: team captain Ondrej Balvin of Prometey Slobozhanske, Zoran Dragic of Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana, Sam Dekker of London Lions, Isiaha Mike of Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse and D.J. Kennedy also of Prometey as starters; Patrick Richard of U-BT Cluj-Napoja as the sixth man; Ilimane Diop of Gran Canaria, Erkan Yilmaz of Turk Telekom Ankara, Luca Conti of Dolomiti Energia Trento and Kareem Queeley also of London as bench players; and Ronen Ginzburg of Prometey as head coach. The prize for finishing first in Round 8 is a free subscription to Euroleague TV for the 2023-24 season!

Marisol R is the new leader atop the overall standings. Her team Zipper is ahead of everyone else with 1,410.4 fantasy points.

Trades are now open for Round 9. Remember, three trades are allowed before each round until the end of the regular season, and you can also trade your head coach.

The first game in Round 9, Promitheas Patras vs. Hapoel Vegan Friendly Tel Aviv, is scheduled to tip off on Tuesday, December 20 at 19:30 CET, and thus marks the next round's deadline.

Make new teams now or improve your existing ones and try to become EuroCup Fantasy Challenge's next winner!

EuroCup Fantasy Challenge: Round 8 winner!

Nathan Sestina might be a new name for some 7DAYS EuroCup fans, but the first-year Turk Telekom Ankara forward is quickly making a name for himself in the competition. In his second start of the season on Tuesday evening, the 25-year-old scored a team-high 20 points as Turk Telekom blew out the London Lions 102-74 to go top of the Group B standings.

Not only were his shooting percentages impressive – he went 4-of-6 on two-pointers (66.7%), 3-of-8 from deep (37.5%) and 3-of-3 from the free-throw line (100.0%) – but he also stood out with his overall energy and hustle. Sestina finished the game with just 2 rebounds, his lowest tally of the season, but he recorded 3 steals and made life incredibly difficult for London with his constant movement on offense.

Nathan Sestina vs London Lions

It was a memorable night for Sestina, who set personal bests for PIR (20), points scored (20) and steals (3), yet the thing that will delight him most is the fact that his team now sits atop the rest in Group B. Speaking after the win against London, he recognized that the faith placed in him by his teammates and Turk Telekom's coaching staff is paying dividends:

"Individually \[I succeeded tonight by\] just trusting what I do each day and having the belief from the coaching staff and my teammates as well. They all believe in me and pump me up before the game. As a team, \[we succeeded by\] executing what Coach wants from start to finish. We had a bad first half last week, so we had to make sure that didn’t let that happen this week and just execute what Coach needs."

Sestina is averaging 11.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, 1.6 assists and a PIR of 10.8 in the opening eight games of the season, and if he continues to perform like he did on Tuesday night at Ankara Spor Salonu, he could play a decisive role in what should be a deep run for Turk Telekom in this year's EuroCup.

Sestina shined to help Turk Telekom go top of Group B

Turk Telekom Ankara v London Lions (2022-12-14T17:00:00.000Z)

When the game is decided on a buzzer-beater, there is hardly any use of dissecting statistics, which happens to be the case in Joventut Badalona's 90-87 win over Umana Reyer Venice, a thrilling game decided on a three-pointer by Henry Ellenson.

Reyer had better shooting percentages for twos and threes, the two teams were dead even at rebounds, while Joventut has more assists and forced more turnovers.

Joventut also had an 8-point lead with 1:45 to go, but Marco Spissu scored 8 points and Andrea De Nicolao a three-pointer with 6.2 seconds left to tie the game.

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="ca" dir="ltr">😎 L’HOME DEL PARTIT<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Badalona%C3%89sFutur?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BadalonaÉsFutur</a> <a href="https://t.co/MkFXBKkkLZ">pic.twitter.com/MkFXBKkkLZ</a></p>&mdash; Club Joventut Badalona (@Penya1930) <a href="https://twitter.com/Penya1930/status/1603142368835776512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 14, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

But, Pep Busquets took the ball the other way, and found Ellenson who hit a three at the buzzer to win it for Joventut.

"It was a lot of fun to hit that shot and a lot of fun to get that win," Ellenson said in an interview immediately after the game. "It is just a great feeling right now."

The shot meant a lot to Ellenson, who finished the game with 6 points on 2-for-5 three-point shooting. He posed for photographers to take a few shots of him holding the game ball, and carried the basketball with him into the locker room.

Ellenson on game-winner: 'It was a lot of fun to hit that shot'

Joventut Badalona v Umana Reyer Venice (2022-12-14T19:15:00.000Z)

Prometey Slobozhanske and U-BT Cluj-Napoca entered their Round 8 game as the EuroCup's top two scoring offenses. And they lived up to the billing, with Cluj holding 51-57 halftime lead. However, in the second half, only one team continued with offensive success.

"In the second half we played defense together as a team, and that was key for our victory," said Prometey center Ondrej Balvin, who finished with a career-high 23 points.

Prometey matched its season-high with 105 points, but held Cluj to just 25 second-half points, including 10 in the fourth quarter.

"These were the best scoring teams in the EuroCup, and the team that would start playing defense would win this game", said Prometey head coach Ronen Ginzburg. "And we started playing defense in the second half."

However, apart from playing defense, Prometey also kept rolling on offense. They shot the lights out from long range, going 15-for-28 (53.6%) and had 24 assists. They ended up scoring even more points in the second half, 54, than they did in the first.

All that while keeping Cluj to 8-for-16 two-point shooting, 2-for-13 three-point shooting, while allowing only 7 assists and forcing 12 turnovers in the last two quarters.

Defense was key in Prometey's offensive rhapsody

ratiopharm Ulm set a club scoring record after a magnificent performance in a 110-98 home win over Group A leader Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse thanks to some effervescent long-range shooting. Ulm achieved its highest score in a EuroCup game ever, having shattered its previous record of 106 points against Fox Cantu in the 2013-14 EuroCup. The home team netted 86 points after the first three quarters, tying its best score in the opening 30 minutes of play also achieved this season. Ulm shot 80% from two-point range and sank 19 three-pointers on 36 attempts, as it also set a new club record of 63 points in the first half.

Yago Dos Santos paced the hosts with 18 points, Juan Nunez and Karim Jallow added 16 each while Robin Christen and new signing Brandon Paul chipped in with 14 apiece. Bourg’s Jordan Floyd led all scorers with 23 points, Frantz Massenat netted 19, Isiaha Mike amassed 15, Maxime Courby scored 12 and Pierre Pelos added 11 for the visitors. Ulm, which won both of last season’s EuroCup meetings with Bourg, improved to a 4-4 record with a third straight win over the French team, which dropped to 6-2 but remained atop of the group.

Both teams enjoyed a fine start as three-pointers kept flying in at either end of the court, but it was Ulm who fired on all cylinders throughout the opening 10 minutes. It carved out a 31-26 lead at the end of the first quarter, having hit 6 three-pointers from 11 attempts, with Dos Santos netting 8 points in the process, while Bourg buried 4 of 5 shots from behind the arc.

Crucially, Ulm pulled away in the second quarter on the back of a flurry of fast breaks, coupled with unrelenting artillery from behind the three-point arc. Ulm raced into a 42-26 lead and although Bourg hung on not to fall further behind, the German team kept its momentum going to lead 63-47 at halftime, having sunk 11 of 19 shots from three-point range.

Ulm was also galvanized by some spectacular dunks from Joshua Hawley and Karim Jallow and the game seemed over as a contest when the advantage soared to 82-59 late in the third quarter. It was a wake-up call for Bourg, which then showed some mettle to slash the deficit to 86-79 early in the fourth with Floyd leading their fightback.

But that turned out to be Bourg’s last roar as Nunez orchestrated another Ulm onslaught, starting with a three-point play on the drive and capping it with a looping shot from way downtown to give his team an unassailable 107-91 lead late in the game.

The only downside for the host was Dos Santos limping off with what looked like an ankle injury in the fourth quarter, but that couldn’t stop Ulm from grinding out a memorable win.

Ulm shatters scoring records in sinking Bourg 110-98

ratiopharm Ulm v Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse (2022-12-14T18:30:00.000Z)