When Giampaolo Ricci hit a three-pointer for Virtus Segafredo Bologna in minute 25 of Game 2 of its 7DAYS EuroCup Quarterfinals playoff against Joventut Badalona on Friday, the best-of-three series seemed all but decided. The scoreboard showed a 23-point lead, 32-55 for Virtus, that seemed completely impossible to overcome for the hosts.

Joventut had just lost its top scorer from Game 1, swingman Xabi Lopez-Arostegui, to an ankle injury, and a few minutes later Nenad Dimitrijevic followed the same path. Missing two main contributors, Joventut was mentally down and trailing by 23. What could go wrong for Virtus?

Two words: Ferran Bassas.

Out of nowhere, the Catalan guard hit 4 straight triples -- after Joventut had started the game going 1-for-10 from the arc -- that revitalized the hosts. After those shots, he continued dishing assists and adding points and for a few minutes as Virtus went from an unstoppable steamroller to a vulnerable leader.

"It cannot be easy with the top eight teams in any competitions, is never easy. Joventut is a great team," Virtus coach Sasa Djordjevic said after the game. "They showed their character, they made some changes, they used some lineups that put up the energy. They made some great threes and they came back. We had a down face in that moment, but we closed it as we know."

When Albert Ventura hit another of those great threes Djordjevic mentioned, the scoreboard showed a 72-71 advantage for Joventut. What had seemed impossible -- a comeback from 23 points behind the span of barely 10 minutes -- had just happened. Joventut had the lead and all the momentum in the world with less than 4 minutes to play.

But Virtus refused to let it go any further.

A team filled with talent and experience, built to win titles, kept its cool and continued playing at its own rhythm regardless of the situation.

Top 16 MVP Vince Hunter was the first to come to the rescue, by scoring, grabbing rebounds and dishing assists to prove that he is still in the zone that earned him that award.

"When their second group came out, we took a step back and we made a few mistakes, but we picked it back up," Hunter said. "We were prepared for ups and downs and we expected this to happen, but closing time came and we tried to step it up."

And step it up they did. Two of the team's veteran leaders, Stefan Markovic and Milos Teodosic, hit surgical threes at the right moments. Markovic's gave some air to Virtus at 72-76 and force Joventut to keep up its insane scoring rhythm; Teodosic's doubled the difference to 75-81 with 25 seconds to go, and he made it look easy, as if Joventut's valiant effort had been admirable, but it was predestined for Virtus to take the win.

Said and done. Still unbeaten after 18 games, Virtus has confirmed this season what it already showed before the 2019-20 season came to a halt -- that the Black V is hungry, ready to win continental titles again, and eager to be back where it had always belonged in its glory years: the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.

Now, Virtus has two more steps to go to lift the EuroCup trophy and win passage to the EuroLeague. For the next one, in the semifinals, Virtus knows knows that it will have to visit Russia for sure to play the Game 3 winner of the quarterfinal between UNICS Kazan and Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar. Either would be a formidable opponent, but Virtus proved again on Friday that it doesn't mind the pressure.

Poise, experience got Virtus to semis

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In a thrilling opening week of the 7DAYS EuroCup Quarterfinals, Buducnost VOLI Podgorica center Willie Reed had a dominant performance leading his team to a rare Game 1 road win while earning himself a weekly MVP award in a process. Reed posted personal bests of 24 points and 13 rebounds in 76-77 win over AS Monaco in Game 1 of their best-of-three series. Reed made 11 two-point shots, the most in the quarterfinals since 2014, on 17 attempts. He added 2 assists and 1 steal for a performance index rating 35, which is tied for eighth highest PIR in quarterfinals history. The next-best performance of the week belonged to Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar playmaker Nigel Williams-Goss, who had a PIR 34 in Game 1 loss against UNICS Kazan, collecting 31 points on 10-for-16 two-point shooting and 2-for-4 on three-pointers, along with 6 assists, 4 rebounds and 2 steals. Ferran Bassas of Joventut Badalona had a PIR 32 in a Game 2 loss against Virtus Segafredo Bologna, scoring 26 points along with 5 assists and 4 steals. Rounding out the list of this week's top performers were Lokomotiv playmakers Mantas Kalnieits and, once again, Williams-Goss, who joined forces to lead Lokomotiv to an 86-74 win over UNICS in Game 2, forcing a series decider. Kalnietis had 23 points, 10 assists, 2 steals and 5 drawn fouls for a PIR of 29, while Williams-Goss collected 25 points, 4 assists, 4 steals and 2 rebounds for a PIR of 28.

### Individual highs: Nigel Williams-Goss, Lokomotiv, 31 points

Williams-Goss’s 31 points in Game 1 led all scorers this week. Williams-Goss leads the quarterfinals in scoring with 28.0 points per game. Reed and Lokomotiv's Kevin Hervey each pulled 13 rebounds in Game 1, the most this week. John Brown of UNICS is the top rebounder in the quarterfinals with 10.5 per game. Virtus point guard Milos Teodosic had 10 assists in Game 1, and Kalnietis matched it in Game 2, to lead all players in the opening week of the quarterfinals. Teodosic averages 8.0 assists, the most after two quarterfinal games. Alessandro Pajola of Virtus and UNICS's Brown each had 5 steals in Game 1. Pajola tops the quarterfinals charts in steals with 4.0 on average. Buducnost forward Danilo Nikolic had 3 blocks in Game 2, more than any other player this week. He is one of four players averaging 1.5 blocks after two games, along with Hervey, Mathias Lessort of Monaco and Jordan Morgan of UNICS.



MVP of the Week: Willie Reed, Buducnost VOLI Podgorica

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For most of the game, he was the oldest player on the court. And as if out to not only lead his team to victory in a do-or-die situation, but to prove how important experience in such games is, Mantas Kalnietis turned in a career performance on Thursday night in Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar's 86-74 victory over UNICS Kazan. The win evened the team's best-of-three 7DAYS EuroCup Quarterfinals at 1-1 and forced a Game 3 to be played on Wednesday, March 31, in Kazan, Russia.

To say that Kalnietis turned back the clock would be unfair; after all, the former EuroCup champion leads the competition in assists this season and Thursday's 10-assist performance marked his sixth double-digit assist game this season. It was also his third double-double of the campaign. But what stood out was his scoring. Kalnietis racked up a career-high 23 points and he did much of his damage early to set the tone.

Kalnietis tallied 8 points and 3 assists in the second quarter when Lokomotiv outscored UNICS 26-11 to take control of the game. He led a decisive 12-0 run with 6 points and an assist – including a three-point play that gave Lokomotiv its first double-digit cushion.

That came after he posted 7 points and 3 assists in the first 10 minutes. Among his 6 points and 3 assists in the third was a steal and slam that further dejected struggling UNICS. All of this is to say, Kalnietis did not pad the stat line with late free throws (though he did make 2 in the final minute) or garbage-time points, he took the game by the horns and carried Lokomotiv to a season-extending victory.

At age 34, Kalnietis was the oldest player in the game, aside from the 6:15 minutes when UNICS played guard Evgeny Kolesnikov, who is a year older. Despite having appeared in 174 games in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and this being his 68th in the EuroCup – which are more games at the highest European level than any other player in the game – Kalnietis played a game-high 35:42.

Against UNICS, he topped the 20-point mark for the fourth time in the EuroCup and recorded a performance index rating of 29, which was the second-highest of his career. Kalnietis notched a PIR of 30 two weeks earlier, in another win-or-go-home game, the Top 16 finale against Dolomiti Energia Trento. He collected 21 points and 10 assists in that game.

Now Lokomotiv faces yet another must-win game to reach the semifinals. Let there be no doubt in anyone's mind... When the season is on the line, Lokomotiv can count on Kalnietis.



With season on the line, Kalnietis stepped up

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Greetings, everybody, from Ljubljana, Slovenia, where my team Buducnost is getting ready for our Game 2 of the 7DAYS EuroCup Quarterfinals against Monaco! We flew here immediately after our Game 1 win -- and what a game and what a win that was! Honestly, I had to re-watch the last five minutes of that game to figure out how we managed to win it.

We realize that we pulled out a victory from almost an impossible situation, which means a lot for the next game. What we saw from Monaco is that it proved itself to be a team that plays hard. Because of the outcome in Game 1, they will surely play even more physical and be even tougher in the second game. So, even though we have a 1-0 series lead, I think we do understand that we are still miles away from getting what we want, which is going through to the semis. 

"You could sense the playoff atmosphere on the court." 

During all of Game 1, you could sense the playoff atmosphere on the court. You could sense players being a little bit more nervous, which also led to some poor decisions, and some reactions that happen out of tension. That's the spirit of the playoffs. And we knew how high the stakes are, which was an extra reason to refuse to give up even when it looked Monaco had a win secured. Knowing how much a win on the road would mean, we played until the end believing we can win.

This season we have been telling ourselves that no matter what is happening on the court, we have the quality to turn things around. It is what our coach stresses all the time. With aggressive defense and a quicker, freer approach on offense, we can compete with anyone and pull out of any situation. And I think it paid off.

Then, there were two great plays by Justin Cobbs at the end; first, his defense to force a turnover, then he made his trademark one-on-one pull-up jumper. Just excellent. He and Willie Reed played a fantastic game. We feel like we have many offensive weapons, but the two of them literally saved us in Game 1. They get the biggest credit for our win. 

"The last possession, I hid behind the LED panels." 

I fouled out of the game with 3 minutes to go. The way I committed those personal fouls, especially the last one on the offensive rebounds against Mathias Lessort, I think it tells you everything about how rational I was in Game 1. We joked about it after the match, and we joked that maybe we would not have won if I stayed in the game. So, it's a rarity that I fouled out in a game, but maybe it had a meaning. But those last 3 minutes were so hard. And the last possession, I hid behind the LED panels. It was tense. It is not only the fact that you are not on the court, but knowing you are not even allowed to get back out there and help. That feeling might be the worst.

I absolutely cannot be happy with my individual performance. I told Justin: Man, you bailed me out. If we had lost that match, I would have carried a lot of responsibility for the loss. Thankfully, it is different because we won, but I still cannot be happy about the way I played and I hope I will be better in Game 2 and help my team make history.

This is our fourth EuroCup Quarterfinals, I was there every other time Buducnost made quarterfinals, and we do have experience. Melvin Ejim and Amedeo Della Valle played in the semifinals before. So, we have a positive feeling, but we also have enough experience to know that we are still very far away from achieving anything in this series. I don't know if I can stress that enough. We have to stay calm and level-headed on Friday, no matter the outcome, but we sense how important it would be to win on Friday. 

"We have to stay calm and level-headed." 

I think we raised our confidence level in recent weeks, and I think it is a result of quality practices. We have long, intensive practices, and coach preaches to play free, to be free to shoot. I feel he is trying to put all our talents to the best possible use. What we also do in practices is compete against each other, and it carried over to the games. I think that having that competitive edge at practice gives us advantages in the games.

Our schedule since Game 1 was that on Wednesday we watched video, and did recovery, and on Thursday we will have our practice so that on Friday we can be at 100% once again. We are not at home, but in Ljubljana, so we don't have a home game. And I joked that we are playing on a court where we have traumas from playing and losing twice against Cedevita Olimpija in our domestic league earlier in the season.

It does not feel like a home game because it is a different arena, you are not used to the baskets. However, that is a situation we can't get out of and we are embracing the challenge. Unfortunately, we are not the first or the last team in this situation. Each team is facing struggles this season, so the most important thing is to adjust, individually and as a team. The faster you adjust and move on, the better your chances to be successful.

An additional challenge is Monaco head coach Zvezdan Mitrovic. Some of us spent two years off-and-on with him, we went through the national team training camp with him, and he definitely knows several of us. And you definitely felt that in the game. He did several things for me to feel uncomfortable, and in the end, he succeeded in it. But it is always nice to see him, I have the greatest respect for him. He helped me in my career, and I enjoy seeing him having so much success in France. But I just hope I am not going to be seeing him in Monaco next week again. After Game 1 he jokingly invited us to visit again next week, but we said we will pass up this invitation, and we'll visit Monaco during the tourist season.

Let's see how it ends up on Friday. Enjoy the games!

Longtime Buducnost leader Nikola Ivanovic talks about his team’s Game 1 road win in the 7DAYS EuroCup Quarterfinals and how he hopes to contribute more in Game 2.

Nikola Ivanovic, Buducnost: 'The spirit of the playoffs'

Game 1 of the best-of-three 7DAYS EuroCup Quarterfinals series between Virtus Segafredo Bologna and Joventut Badalona was as great as everyone expected: two former continental champions battling hard against each other, with deep rosters, well-rounded veterans and also promising young players on both sides of the court.

Virtus head coach Sasa Djordjevic provided the first surprise, starting Milos Teodosic for just the fifth time this season, but was forced to find answers on the bench throughout the bench. He certainly found them, as Virtus's reserves combined for 61 points in an 80-75 victory.

No player from the second unit had a bigger impact on the game than up-and-coming playmaker Alessandro Pajola. He surprised Joventut with his energy, defense and court sense, finishing the game with 6 points on 4 free throws plus 1 rebound, 6 assists, a career-high 5 steals and 2 fouls drawn for a PIR of 14. Only one player has collected more steals in a quarterfinals game since the playoff format was adopted in 2017: Aaron White of Zenit St Petersburg, who amassed 7 against Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar in Game 2 of the 2017 quarterfinals.

Pajola played a critical role early in the fourth quarter with the game on the line. With Joventut ahead 63-65, Pajola fed Teodosic first for a three-pointer and then for a layup. He went on to collect his fifth steal and find Vince Hunter for a close basket. Joventut called timeout at 73-68 but never came back, as Pajola had switched the game's momentum.

Marco Belinelli led all bench scorers with 24 points. He had 20 in the opening 25 minutes, when Virtus was struggling more against Joventut's physical difference. Teodosic led all starters with his fourth EuroCup double-double: 11 points and 10 assists.

Joventut did a lot of good things and Game 2 at Palau Olimpic de Badalona on Friday night should be very different. Joventut outrebounded Virtus 33-39 and limited Virtus to 20 assists after averaging 28.3 in the previous four games.

"I think my team played good basketball," Joventut head coach Carles Duran said. "I am happy and thinking about the second game."

All signs point to Game 2 being quite a spectacle!

Young Pajola lifted Virtus in key moments

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On a Buducnost VOLI Podgorica team that relied on a balanced attack all season long, two men stood out from the rest to lead the way to a historic 76-77 road win at AS Monaco on Thursday in the opener of their best-of-three 7DAYS EuroCup Semifinals series. Justin Cobbs and Willie Reed combined for 22 of their team's 26 fourth-quarter points as Buducnost came from 6 down with 2 minutes remaining to grab the win.

Five different players averaged double figures in scoring for Buducnost this season and all of them contributed to the Game 1 win, but none quite like Cobbs and Reed. Cobbs finished with a season-high 21 points on 3-of-5 three-point shooting. He scored 12 points in the fourth quarter, powering Buducnost with one big basket after another, including the game-winning jumper with 2.4 seconds left. Reed shined in the paint with a personal-best 24 points, including 10 in the last 10 minutes. He added 13 rebounds, too.

Together, Cobbs and Reed combined to score 58.4% of their team's points against Monaco, which goes down as one of the greatest scoring efforts by a duo in EuroCup Quarterfinals history.

The last time two players combined for a higher percentage of their team's points in a quarterfinals game was in 2013 when Loukas Mavrokefalidis (21) and Zack Wright (14) had 62.5% of Spartak St Petersburg's output in a 73-56 Game 2 loss to Budivelnik Kyiv. The last time two players combined for a higher percentage of their team's points in a quarterfinals game for a winning team was in 2011 when Maciej Lampe (31) and Marko Popovic (17) had 60.7% of UNICS Kazan's points in a 79-77 Game 2 victory over Pepsi Caserta.

Buducnost relied heavily on Cobbs and Reed all game long. Reed scored the team's first 4 points and Cobbs added the only Buducnost three-pointer of the first quarter when only four players scored for the visitors. They combined for 18 of Buducnost's 37 points at halftime when the team trailed by 1. After a quiet third quarter, Cobbs and Reeds combined for Buducnost's first 10 points before Danilo Nikolic and Malvin Ejim each scored. Cobbs and Reed then carried Buducnost the rest of the way.

The true blessing for Buducnost is that it knows it has many more weapons in Nikola Ivanovic, Ejim, Amedeo Della Valle, Nikolic and Suad Sehovic. Some of them will surely need to step up in Game 2 for Buducnost to have a chance at a series sweep because a dominant two-man game like Cobbs and Reed produced in Monaco is truly a rare occurrence.

Two-man game powered Buducnost

Herbalife Gran Canaria exhibited a bit of its excellent depth in ripping away the home-court advantage of its 7DAYS EuroCup Quarterfinals Series from Boulogne Metropolitans 92 thanks to an outstanding showing by its bench. Six players scored in double figures for Gran Canaria in its 74-84 Game 1 victory at Boulogne Metropolitans 92 - four of them were reserves.

The starting trio of Stanley Okoye, John Shurna and Oliver Stevic came into the game averaging a combined 26.5 points. But they only produced 8 points in Game 1. Stepping up instead were Javier Beiran and his 15 points with Matt Costello picking up 11 points and 8 rebounds and Tomas Dimsa and Aleksander Balcerowski both adding 10 points and 3 assists. All told, Gran Canaria’s reserves outscored the starters 48-36. And the bench players left their mark throughout the game.

The 20-year-old big man Balcerowksi came on early in the game and scored inside and hit a three-pointer in the first quarter. Gran Canaria took control of the game thanks mainly to players from its second-unit in the second quarter as Costello, Beiran and Dimsa each scored 5 points in a 3-15 run for a 23-34 lead. Balcerowski added 4 points in a big 0-8 surge in the third quarter to extend the lead to 42-54.

And in the fourth quarter, the bench kept on shining; Costello scored 4 points and Dimsa added a big three-pointer to keep Metropolitans at an arm’s length in the first half of the frame. And then it was Beiran who drained the dagger three-pointer to make it 72-82 with just 57 seconds left.

This bodes well for Gran Canaria coach Porfi Fisac, who knows he can rely on the guys coming off the bench to produce if the starters need a break or get into foul trouble. The coach also knows the reserves are able to carry the team to a victory if needed.

Reserves got the job done for Gran Canaria

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The series between UNICS Kazan and Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar is different from the other three in the 7DAYS EuroCup Quarterfinals because both teams are old rivals. Both UNICS and Lokomotiv won the EuroCup title in the past – in 2011 and 2013, respectively. Both teams had current Lokomotiv Evgeny Pashutin as head coach when they won the EuroCup. And, of course, both teams compete domestically against each other in the VTB League.

Because UNICS and Lokomotiv know each other so well, there is little room for surprises. UNICS, however, managed to rally from a double-digit deficit to win Game 1 of the series on Monday using a straightforward but deadly weapon: the three-point shot.

UNICS buried 19 three-point shots, the most by any EuroCup team ever beyond the regular season. The previous best this late in any season was when Valencia Basket hit 18 triples against Zadar back on February 25, 2003, in the competition's debut campaign, en route to a 105-84 win. Monday's shooting spree fell just 1 three-pointer short of tying the EuroCup's all-time single-game record of 20, which UNICS also holds alongside LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne.

Every time UNICS needed offensive answers on Monday, its passers looked for outside shooters. Lokomotiv had been in control early and still led 18-29 early in the second quarter on Andrei Martiuk's score around the basket. It didn't last long, however, as all-time EuroCup three-point king Jamar Smith, Okaro White and John Brown all struck from downtown for UNICS in an 11-0 run to tie 29-29. UNICS was only getting started, though. Isaiah Canaan would hit 3 more shots from beyond the arc while John Holland and Jordan Theodore 1 each for a spectacular 8 triples made in 11 tries that gave the hosts a 51-42 lead after a 33-13 second-quarter run.

Nigel Williams-Goss, whose career-high 31 points kept Lokomotiv in the game, got help from Drew Gordon and Mantas Kalnietis to get the visitors within 75-73 with 6 minutes left. Then, just like in the first half, UNICS saved the victory by dialing long distance. Holland and Canaan blasted triples before Holland's huge dunk at 83-75, providing the cushion needed for UNICS to protect the lead the rest of the way.

"We had amazing three-point shooting. Of course, there was a reason for this, because Loko's tactic was, for some players, to let us shoot," UNICS head coach Dimitris Priftis said after the game. "They stayed inside and we were open, mostly from position four. We had a good night and we made those shots."

Of course, UNICS did more than just shoot well to win. Its defense forced Lokomotiv into a season-low 20 turnovers, matching its Round 7 total against Virtus Segafredo Bologna. UNICS was more accurate at the foul line, downing 11 of 13 free throws (84.6%) while Lokomotiv managed just 14 of 22 (63.6%).

"We have to move the ball much better than only 16 assists. Usually, we have 25 assists and even more, but today the reason was tough defense," Coach Pashutin of Lokomotiv said after the game. "It's only the first game. We realize our mistakes. And we're going to be much better for the second game for this level of contact and physicality."

Game 2 of this exciting playoffs series takes place at Basket Hall Krasnodar on Thursday.

UNICS wins it from downtown

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Peaking at the right time is often crucial in making a long run in the 7DAYS EuroCup and veteran AS Monaco point guard Dee Bost has been doing just that. Going into Monaco's best-of-three quarterfinals against his former team Buducnost VOLI Podgorica on Tuesday, Bost enters the series as one of the hottest players in the competition.

Bost has performed well through much of the entire season. He averaged 14.1 points and 4.4 assists for an average performance index rating of 15.1 during the regular season. He did have some ups and downs, scoring in double digits in six of his nine regular season games, and Bost was definitely not consistent in the first three games of the Top 16.

The Monaco playmaker starred with 15 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds and 2 steals in a Top 16 Round 2 win over Unicaja Malaga, but combined to score just 7 points and dish 4 assists in Rounds 1 and 3. He averaged 7.3 points and 4.0 assists in the first part of the Top 16 while making just 25% of his field goal attempts, struggling both close to the basket as well from long range, and averaged a PIR of 6.0.

In the last three Top 16 games, however, Bost was lighting it up. He improved his three-point shooting to 38.5% and scored on all except 4 of his 13 two-point attempts since Round 4. As Monaco triumphed in all of those games to win Top 16 Group E and earn home-court advantage in the quarterfinals, Bost scored at least 17 points in each and averaged 6.3 assists, to boot.

Bost got hot in Monaco's 13-point win over fellow quarterfinalist Joventut Badalona Top 16 Round 4, when he posted a double-double of 17 points and 11 assists on the way to a career-high PIR of 32. He followed up that performance with a 22-point and 5-assist effort, accumulating a PIR of 21 in a 98-94 victory over Nanterre 92 that clinched first place in the group for Monaco.

Despite the group being won already, Bost used the last Top 16 game to cap his terrific run and deliver arguably his most efficient performance of the season. He needed less than 20 minutes of a road win at Unicaja Malaga to score 21 points, making 3 of 6 two-point shots and 5 of 6 triples while dishing 3 assists, too.

During the last half of the Top 16, Bost averaged 20.0 points, third in the EuroCup over that span, while accumulated a PIR of 75, more than any other player since Round 4.

Bost will certainly look to continue his hot streak when Monaco hosts its historic quarterfinals premier against Buducnost for Game 1 of their series on Tuesday night.