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Round 3 at a glance: Road tests for three group leaders

Round 3 at a glance: Road tests for three group leaders

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24 October 20224 Mins read

Round 3 at a glance: Road tests for three group leaders

Top scorers & an unbeaten trio with tough road tests

The new season has already delivered a couple of new debutant stars. Promitheas Patras guard joe Young has shined in the first two rounds, scoring 20 points in the season opener and 34 in last week's win over Gran Canaria. J'Covan Brown of Hapoel Tel Aviv is second in scoring with 20.0 points plus a EuroCup-best 9.0 assists and 3.5 three-pointers made. However, Brown missed his team's Israeli Cup game on Sunday due to a sprained ankle and his status for Wednesday is unclear.

Both of their clubs are 2-0 in Group B and now await tough road tests against teams coming off big road wins. Promitheas travels to the Montenegrin capital where on Tuesday it will face Buducnost VOLI Podgorica (1-1), which won by 40 points in Wroclaw in Round 3, while a day later Hapoel travels to the Turkish capital to play Turk Telekom Ankara, which pulled out a road win in Hamburg last week. That will also be a clash of the EuroCup's top rebounders so far, Hapoel's Chris Horton (12.5 rpg.) and Tyrique Jones of Turk Telekom (10.5 rpg.).

Last year's finalist Frutti Extra Bursaspor is the third 2-0 club that will be away from home, playing Prometey Slobozhanske (1-1) in a Group A clash on Wednesday.

The only undefeated team to play at home this week is Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse (2-0), which will host Lietkabelis Panevezys, also in Group A on Wednesday. Bourg missed out on the playoffs last season, but now has a chance in front of its fans to open the new season with a 3-0 record.

Records watch and big guns in uncomfortable situations

On the other end of the spectrum is Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana (0-2), one of last year's quarterfinalist, which has opened the season with a pair of losses and now welcomes fellow contender Joventut Badalona (1-1) in a Group A showdown. Even though the season is only getting rolling, there will be pressure for both sides, which enter this campaign with high ambitions but now might end up in an uncomfortable early-season situation. After this game, either both teams will be at an unexpected 1-2 record, or Cedevita will sit at 0-3.

Many eyes this week will surely be on Stozice Arena which will also see a pair of veteran big men, Alen Omic and Ante Tomic, go against each other. Joventut is Omic's former team, and he will have a chance to change the EuroCup record books against it. Omic has 265 career offensive rebounds and needs just 2 more to catch the all-time leader Bojan Dubljevic, and 3 to surpass him.

Shot-blocking youngster and a 14-game skid

Three games on Tuesday will each feature a team trying to pick up its first win of the season. In Group A, Umana Reyer Venice (0-2) faces a tough road test against newcomer U-BT Cluj-Napoca (1-1), while Slask Wroclaw (0-2) will try to bounce back from a 40-point home loss when it visits Veolia Towers Hamburg (1-1) in Group B on Wednesday.

However, there will be a lot more pressure on Dolomiti Energia Trento, which has not only lost the first two games this season but also the last 12 last season. Currently on a 14-game losing streak in the competition, Trento will try to end the slide when it welcomes newcomer Paris Basketball (1-1). The visitors are an athletic bunch with 21-year old rookie Ismael Kamagate who has shined bright so far. Kamagate is averaging 10.0 points, 8.5 rebounds and a EuroCup-high 3.5 blocks. He has a total of 7 blocked shots this season, while the entire Trento team has just 1. The budding young star will try to help his team pick up a second road win while extending Trento's losing streak to 15 games.

1-1 matchups

There are two clashes between teams holding 1-1 records, both on Wednesday. In Group A, ratiopharm Ulm hosts Germani Brescia which is coming off its record offensive output, having set new club single-game records for points scored (104) and PIR (141) last week. Interestingly, Brescia enters this contest on a nine-game road losing streak. The last time it won a game away from home was in December 2019 when it downed Darussafaka Istanbul 61-70. Two current Brescia players, David Moss and Tommaso Laquintana were members of that squad.

The other matchup between 1-1 teams is Gran Canaria welcoming London Lions. Fun fact about this one? This will be Gran Canaria's 210th game in the competition and London's third.