The first round of games kicked off in the capital of Lithuania. And though not worth making analogies with the sport of boxing, the warm up in the ring was just beginning, so to speak. The main events of the evening were centered on games in the series that have already been prefixed from the get-go: Kazan vs. Belgrade.

The Siemens Arena en Vilnius staged an interesting match when three times during the game Lietuvos Rytas not only recouped it's 13-point deficit (losing 70-83 in an away game), they also went on to the lead in the sum of the two games. The French SIG Strasbourg basketball players were keeping it up just to get to the final whistle.

The visiting team was leading by 8 points in the last quarter and it looked as if the Lithuanians would not be able to break the opposition. However, they were carried on by team spirit — the underlying key to basketball – unlike the opponent, which during critical offensive plays the burden rested on the shoulders of just Eidson and Nissim with 15 and 13 points respectively, or half the total team’s points. The top scorers for Lietuvos Rytas were Petravicius and Rush (11 each), Jomantas (9), and Nielsen (8).

FMP Zeleznik had to pick up 9 points in Belgrade against Jerusalem’s Hapoel, having lost in an away game: 79-88. In the first match in the top of the first quarter the Serbs were at a comfortable lead of 9 points, but sat on their laurels too comfortably. Their Coach Vlado Vukoicic was able to take the boys out of their happy stupor in the last 10 minutes. The home team started shooting bombs from the arc, with Dragan Labovic (4/4) and 23 points and Zoran Erceg (2/2), with 13 on the scoreboard were making thunder. Hapoel, on a roster that included notables Austin with 24, Tapiro with 13, and Bowers with 12), couldn’t swing it all into action.

In Madrid the home team, conscious of the simple task of sustaining their handicap of 11 points (83-72), closed in and simply did not let any balls be launched by Crvena Zvezda. During the third quarter and 30 something minutes, the red-n-whites scored 13 points; jus when they needed to erase their deficit of 12 points.

The Belgrade b-ball boys, led by Stevan Karadzic (Sakota off), were deprived of the chance to make any changes in this two-round face off. Gurovic was the top man, despite him scoring a mere 19 points, followed by Popovic (13), Radivojevic (12), and Alexandrov (12). Top dogs for Madrid were Bullock (22), Hervelle (14), López (10), and Reyes (7 + 14 rebounds). It wasn’t until the second half that not a shadow of a doubt existed for the course of the series; Real Madrid enjoyed the rest of their game to their own liking.

No hope left for Montepaschi, which mustered almost have the spectators in the stands. The home team took off with a bang, clinching the first quarter half of all necessary points, with 15 out of 30. Fortunately, the boys from Sireika fired up and went to halftime with an acceptable -4, which logically assured them a place in the semi-finals. The efforts of Montepaschi however did not amount to much after halftime, amounting to scores from their top men: Forte with 30 points, Kaukenas with 19, Sato with 18, and McIntyre 17. On Kazan’s roster, the brightest were: Chikalkin (21), D. Lavrinovic (19 + 8 rebounds), Stevenson (14 + 8 rebounds), K. Lavrinovic (13 + 8 rebounds).

1/4 Finals – Rematch Games

6 March

Montepaschi (Siena, Italy) vs. UNICS (Kazan, Russia): 96-97 (30-15, 18-29, 19-24, 29-29)

Real (Madrid, Spain) vs. Crvena Zvezda (Belgrade, Serbia): 79-78 (17-13, 21-13, 20-29, 21-23)

FMP Zeleznik (Belgrade, Serbia) vs. Hapoel (Jerusalem, Israel): 72-56 (20-15, 20-11, 14-20, 18-10)

Lietuvos Rytas (Vilnius, Lithuania) vs. IG Strasbourg (France): 88-70 (27-18, 13-20, 19-20, 29-14)

(Teams going to the next round in bold.)

Semi Finals will play out on 13 and 20 March

1/8

1/4

1/2

Final

1/2

1/4

1/8

30.01,13.02

27.02, 06.03

13, 20.03

10.04

13, 20.03

27.02, 06.03

30.01,13.02

FMP, Serbia

Real Madrid, Spain

88-84, 70-64

FMP, Serbia

Real M, Spain

74-65, 73-57

Grand Canary, Spain

Alba, Germany

79-88, 88-70

FMP

Real

83-72, 79-78

Ventspils, Latvia

BC Khimki, Russia

73-88, 62-73

Hapoel, Israel

C Zvezda, Serbia

77-89, 76-93

Hapoel, Israel

C Zvezda, Serbia

Nancy, France

UNICS, Russia

86-89, 74-86

Strasbourg, France

UNICS, Russia

90-73, 95-64

Strasbourg, France

Hemofarm, Serbia

83-70, 56-72

L Rytas

UNICS

83-53, 97-96

L Rytas, Lithuania

Montepaschi, Italy

72-75, 65-60

L Rytas, Lithuania

Montepaschi, Italy

79-62, 80-77

Snaidero, Italy

PAOK, Grecia