Mincidelice JL Bourg en Breese had to wait until the last second to defeat 7DAYS EuroCup newcomer U-BT Cluj-Napoca, 88-85, from the free throw line. The home team led 85-76 entering crunch time, but Jordan Taylor made it a 1-point game to cap a 0-8 run that brought the game to the line. Leo Meindl missed a couple of free throws to tie the game and James Palmer Jr. sealed the outcome for the hosts from the line with 1 second to go.

Palmer was Bourg’s top scorer with 17 points. Pierre Pelos followed with 16 and Frantz Massenat, Jordan Floyd and Isiah Mike contributed 10 apiece. Meindl paced Cluj with 19 points and 7 rebounds, Jordan Taylor had 13 and Andrija Stipanovic and Stefan Bircevic contributed 12 each in the losing effort.

 After a balanced start of the game, the home team managed to amass an 18-11 margin behind a three by Pelos, but Cluj didn’t panic and got within 21-20 midway through the second period after an unsportsmanlike foul converted by Karel Guzman. Massenat boosted Bourg with 8 points in a row for a 33-25 edge, although Meindl showed up from the free-throw line to help Cluj stay within 37-32 at halftime. 

 

The Brazillian forward stayed hot after the break and provided 9 points in less than 4 minutes to tie it at 44-44 midway through the third period. The hosts managed to rebuild the lead from behind the arc, as Maxime Courbey, Mike and Pelos combined for 4 threes that pushed Bourg to a double-digit margin entering the last quarter, 62-51. Bourg managed to keep Cluj out of reach and entered crunch time dominating 85-76, but a 0-8 run in which Bircevic nailed a three and Taylor provided a three-point play sent the game to the wire, 85-84. Floyd gave Cluj the opportunity of tying it up twice, but Taylor and Meindl missed from the line too, ruining their team’s hope to debut with a win.

Bourg survives thriller to edge Cluj 88-85

Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse v U-BT Cluj-Napoca (2022-10-12T17:30:00.000Z)

Veolia Towers Hamburg opened the season with a 66-73 road win over Buducnost VOLI Podgorica at Moraca on Wednesday night. 

After winning just three games on the road in all of last season, Hamburg struck early in 2022-23. Lukas Meisner led the way with 15 points on 3 of 6 three-point shooting, Ziga Samar and Seth Hinrichs added 11 points each and Kendale McCullum and produced 10 points, 10 assists and 3 steals in his debut. Petar Popovic paced the hosts with 13 points and Aaron White scored 10.

A pair of threes by Cameron Reynolds helped Buducnost take an early lead, however, Hamburg stayed close, took its first lead on a Marvin Clark triple and led 23-24 after 10 minutes. Meisner and Jonas Wohlfarth-Bottermann combined to score 10 points in a 0-12 second-quarter run as the visitors assumed control and settled for a 37-47 halftime advantage,

 

Despite the best efforts of Igor Drobnjak, Buducnost could not get closer than 6 at any point in the third quarter. A three point play by Kenan Kamenjas and a dunk by White drew the home team within 60-63 early in the fourth. Samar responded with a three and Buducnost was held scoreless for nearly 3 minutes as Hamburg padded its lead and held on the rest of the way.

Hamburg opens season with 66-73 win in Podgorica

Buducnost VOLI Podgorica v Veolia Towers Hamburg (2022-10-12T17:00:00.000Z)

Post-game quotes: Trento vs. Promitheas

Check out the post-game quotes after Promitheas Patras stopped host Dolomiti Energia Trento 76-89  on Wednesday.

### Promitheas head coach Makis Giatras 

"We had a good game overall. The first half, we were better defensively. The second half we were better offensively. It was a good game for us. We won with a difference of 13 points, which might be crucial for the second round. We're happy for the W."

### Joe Young, Promitheas player

"It was our execution in practice \[that made the difference\]. We had some great practices coming in here. Everybody was serious and everybody was focused. I thought we came out to compete. The other team competed, as well. And I thought we did a great job. I started out rusty, but the team and the coaches kept me going."

Game Video

Game News

###  Lele Molin, Trento head coach

"Patras won with merit, playing 40 solid minutes with more continuity than we played with. We had a couple of moments of great difficulty in the first and second quarter, suffering too much from one-on-one situations and paying a dear price for our too-many turnovers. In the second half of the game, we had a different attitude, but it wasn't enough."

Dolomiti Energia Trento v Promitheas Patras (2022-10-12T18:00:00.000Z)

### Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse head coach Frederic Fauthoux:

"It’s very important to start with a victory, especially at home, but it’s a special victory because we needed to win this game earlier. This group is young, and we must have controlled the game when we were leading by 10 or 12 points. Fortunately the final result is good, but for a coach like me, it was not perfect. But since this is the beginning, it was a good win."

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

“We wanted it badly, but unfortunately for us, it was just the fourth quarter we played as we were supposed to play. This should be our spirit, like a team, in order to be able to win games, never give up. Today we played bad, in the three first quarters we played without courage offensively, and defensively there were moments in which we couldn’t stop them. We tried to fight to come back, and we had our chances. We got free throws to tie the game, but this is it. We have to move forward, learn from these mistakes and take it step by step.”

### Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse guard James Palmer:

“It was a hard-fought game, we made some mistakes at the end. They made an 8-0 run, but we came out with the win and that’s all that matters. We stayed together as a team, we just made sure to finish the game strong.”

### U-BT Cluj-Napoca guard Jordan Taylor:

"We fought hard, but we allowed some easy points in the second half. It was our first 7DAYS EuroCup game and it is a lot to build on. We wanted to win and it is a tough loss.

 

### U-BT Cluj-Napoca forward Leonardo Meindl:

"It was a really hard game. We played away and it is very complicated to play here. They have a good team too, but we've got to improve. We need to keep our heads up and continue to improve."

Post-game quotes: Bourg vs. Cluj-Napoca

Promitheas Patras used a first-quarter run and never look back on the way to a 76-89  road win at Dolomiti Energia Trento in the Group B opener for both teams.  


Trento led 13-9 before Promitheas scored the last 11 points of the first quarter, pushed the lead to 29-42 at halftime and kept control the rest of the way. Trevis Simpson led the winners with 22 points on near-perfect shooting. Joe Young followed with 20 and Arnoldas Kulboka combined 18 points with 11 rebounds for the winners. Trento got 14 points from Diego Flaccadori and 13 each from Luca Conti and Dew Crawford. 

Game Videos

Trento ran transition well to a 13-9 start but the Promitheas trio of Simpson, Young and Kulboka took over from there for an 11-0 run to finish the first quarter ahead 13-20. Promitheas kept it going to 15-24 before Trento reeled it back a bit, but soon Simpson's shooting provided the first double-digit difference. Flaccadori tried to trim it but Promitheas still led 29-43 at the half. Scoring surged after halftime as Trento pulled within 38-47 but the run-and-gun pace was fine with the visitors, whose scoring trio maintained a 43-56 advantage. George Conditt and Simpson supplied the biggest lead yet at 45-62. Simpson added a four-point play 49-66 but despite Luca Conti answering, Vassilis Mouratos beat the third-quarter buzzer to keep Promitheas up 55-69. Trento kept scoring behind Conti and Crawford but couldn't stop the visitors as Mouratos and Young kept them ahead 68-81 midway through the quarter. Flaccadori cut it to 74-85 before Young and Simpson connected on another triple that put the difference out of reach.

Promitheas trio leads road win in Trento

Prometey Slobozhanske took advantage of aggressive and uptempo play and the resulting easy points to grab its historic first-ever win in the 7DAYS EuroCup.

Prometey beat 7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys 82-71 thanks to 24 fastbreak points to just 2 for Lietkabelis. That was a mix of punishing turnovers and getting out in transition after long rebounds. Prometey swiped 14 steals among 18 Lietkabelis turnovers, but the hosts’ only had an 18-16 advantage on points off turnovers.

The other big difference in the boxscore came at the foul stripe where Prometey made 19 of 21 free throws (90.5%) and Lietkabelis converted just 13 of 19 for (68.4%).

Easy points carried Prometey to historic win

Prometey Slobozhanske v 7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys (2022-10-12T16:00:00.000Z)

Prometey Slobozhanske made history in the opening round of the 7DAYS EuroCup season by defeating 7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys for its first victory in the competition.

Gian Clavell led the way with 20 points as the Ukrainian side won 82-71 in the Group A game played in the club’s relocated home of Riga, Latvia. Caleb Agada added 16 points, 7 assists and 4 steals for Prometey while Zeljko Sakic paced Lietkabelis with 14 points.

After Prometey scored the first 4 points, Lietkabelis went on a 2-11 run. Prometey regained its focus and took initial control with a 13-2 surge spanning the first two quarters to lead 26-17. The Ukrainian side kept its aggressiveness and was leading 43-31 at halftime. Lietkabelis trimmed the gap to 50-49 but trailed 59-53 after 30 minutes. Prometey needed less than 2 minutes to get the advantage back to 12 points, 67-55. Lietkabelis twice was able to pull within 8 - the last time with just more than 5 minutes to play. But Prometey would not give up down the stretch.

Prometey downs Lietkabelis 82-71 for first EuroCup win

### Veolia Towers Hamburg head coach Raoul Korner:

"I think we played an excellent first half, especially offensively. We moved the ball well and found good solutions. Therefore, it was clear to us that Buducnost would increase the intensity, especially in defense. In the second half, it was a much more defensive game, very physical. I'm very happy with how my team reacted to the increasing physical play in the third quarter. In this situation, Podgorica struck the first blow. But I'm very proud of how my team reacted and didn't lose control of the game. In the end, we won the game through our defense. Overall, it's an important win that we want to build on."

### Buducnost VOLI Podgorica head coach Vlada Jovanovic:

"First half we had a problem on defense. In the third quarter, especially in the last 5 minutes of the third quarter, we established some kind of a good defense, but on the other side, we could not find a good rhythm on offense almost the whole game. We had some open shots when we played good defense, but we missed these open shots. And then we continued with this offense without a rhythm."

### Veolia Towers Hamburg forward Lukas Meissner:

"It is very huge win for us and our organization. It is another season, we have a little bit of experience in the EuroCup and we know how important are these wins on the road, and I am very proud of each of the guys on the team."

### Veolia Towers Hamburg guard Kendale McCullum

"Considering we played on the road, we had a long trip, it was our first game, we did great. Especially on defense. We kept a really strong offensive team on 66 points. It's not an easy task at this level. We are the underdog in the competition. Nevertheless, it was a statement that shows that we can compete against any team.”

Post-game quotes: Buducnost vs. Hamburg

### Prometey Slobozhanske head coach Ronen Ginzburg:

"This is basketball and we know you cannot play the whole game at the same rhythm. We knew they would come back and they did, but we showed character when they came back. It’s okay. We really showed we wanted to play. We were really aggressive and gave a lot of effort. We have a lot of work to do but they cannot play without effort if people come from Ukraine to watch them."

### 7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys head coach Nenad Canak:

“They deserved the win today. We made a lot of turnovers on offense and didn’t execute our offense well. We played without screens. We also didn’t control their rebounding. Plus they scored a lot of easy points on transition and we couldn’t handle all that. They were better today."

### Prometey Slobozhanske forward Caleb Agada:

“It was a good performance. I think we showed what we are made of. We have a great team, great teammates, great organization, great coaching staff."