Paris Basketball came to a sold-out Copper Box Arena on Wednesday night and beat the London Lions 80-93 in the first-ever installment of this derby between the two 7DAYS EuroCup newcomers. By coming away with the win, Paris improved to 6-3 and is now 5-0 on the road, while London dropped to 4-5.
Paris spoils London's special night, 80-93

Aamir Simms led Paris with 15 points, and Tyrone Wallace finished as the team's second top scorer with 13. Gauthier Denis and Kyle Allman contributed 12 and 10 points, respectively, too. London found scoring from Sam Dekker, who had a game-high 19 points. Tomislav Zubcic had 17 and Vojtech Hruban ended with 12, while Josh Sharma, Jordan Taylor and Kosta Koufos scored 10 points apiece. For Paris, it was a team effort when it came to scoring, with nine players scoring 6 points or more. London, meanwhile, had six of its players finish with at least 6 points.
There was plenty of noise and excitement inside Copper Box Arena for tipoff, but it was Paris that had the better start to the game, opening a 6-12 lead after Aamir Simms and Axel Toupane combined for 9 points. London kept its composure, though, as it began to find joy in the paint with Josh Sharma, who scored 6 first-quarter points and got the fans off their seats with a couple of thunderous dunks. Thanks to Jordan Taylor's made free throw, London ended the first quarter three points ahead, 19-16.
The beginning of the second quarter was almost a mirror image of the first, as Paris started strong once again. This time, though, the visitors were able to flip their three-point deficit and make it a 12-point game, 19-31, with 6:21 minutes remaining before halftime. Dekker and Koufos, two of London's most high-profile players, helped lead a response from the hosts, who trimmed the gap to three points, 35-38, not long before the break. Heading into halftime, though, Paris was ahead by seven, 37-44.
Paris kept its foot on the gas in the third quarter and took advantage of a poor shooting night for London from three-point range, going ahead by as many as 23 points on two occasions – 52-75 and 54-77 – before Tomislav Zubcic hit the Lions' first triple of the night to make it 57-77 going into the fourth.
Optimism was fading inside Copper Box Arena, despite attempts from the crowd to cheer on the team, and Paris showed no sign of letting up. With 2:32 left, Kyle Allman hit a two-pointer to effectively wrap up the visitors' win, 68-90. London put some more points on the board to cut the gap, but it wasn’t enough, with the final score reading 80-93.