BC "Prometey" - BC "Frutti Extra Bursaspor" (Turkey). October 26. 19:00. 7DAYS EuroCup group tournament. Group A. 3rd round. Riga (Latvia). "Arena Riga". Broadcast - YouTube channel "DIVISPORT BASKETBALL".
For the first time in their history, “Prometey” will play the official EuroCup match against the team that, at the moment, is among the elite division of the continental club basketball. With all respect to, for instance, Spanish “Tenerife” or “Riesen Ludwidsburg” from Germany, which the best Ukrainian club played with and started familiarising themselves with the Champions League, they cannot be considered the TOP European teams. The situation is absolutely different to today’s “Frutti Exstra Bursaspor”. On the eve of confrontation with them, the head coach of “Prometey” said the following: “We are going to face one of the hottest European teams. They did not lose; they beat “Joventut Badalona” and also a Euroleague team “Anadolu Efes”. If “Bursaspor” played in the Euroleague this season, they would be in the TOP-5 – TOP-7. So, It’s a great challenge for us”.
The words of the coach of “red and white” are proved by the rating of the 100 best European clubs. According to it, the club, which represents the 4th biggest city in Turkey (about 3 million inhabitants), is in 3rd position so far. With all conditionality of the rating, it completely reflects amazing performances of the team at the start of the 2022/2023 season: “Bursaspor” did not suffer any defeats neither in the EuroCup nor in the Turkish Superleague.
At the same time, our team’s opponent advanced to these leading positions only during the two previous seasons. Yet three years ago, they did not play in the elite of Turkish basketball. The team got in there after becoming the best team of the TBL league, the second-ranked division of Turkey. Together with this success, “Bursaspor” became the finalist of the Turkish Federation Cup, conceding in the decisive match to the capital’s “Ankaragucu”.
Only in their third season in the Superleague “Bursaspor” won the ticket to the play-off tournament. In the spring of this year, in a quarterfinal, they lost with the score of 1:2 to “Fenerbafce” from Istanbul, but confidently defeated them in a home match (97:77). The club from Bursa gained European recognition in 2021/2022 season due to reaching the final of the 7DAYS EuroCup. What is interesting, is that the team of the Serbian coach Dushan Alimpijevic performed in the regular season rather mediocre (7 place in their group), but then successively surpassed in the play-off Serbian “Partizan” (in overtime), Slovenian “Cedevita Olimpia” and “Morabank” from Andorra. But the team did not manage to make the final step on the way to the Euroleague: in the decisive match, Italian “Virtus Bologna”, who won with the score of 80:67, was stronger.
“Bursaspor” demonstrated their great ambitions at the start of both tournaments: the 7DAYS EuroCup and the Turkish Championship. In the EuroCup the successively defeated “Cedevita Olimpia” (81:73) and Spanish “Joventut” (81:72). In the Turkish Superleague BSL the winning series of “Bursaspor” consists of 4 matches. We could single out their last Sunday’s success in a confrontation with the reigning Euroleague champion “Anadolu Efes” (88:86).
In all 6 matches of the season, Alimpijevic used quite a limited roster of 7-8 players. All of them are of high European level. 32-year-old guard Derek Needham is well known to Ukrainian fans. Together with today’s “Prometey” players Illia Sydorov and Viacheslav Petrov, he won the Ukrainiam Championship as part of “Khimik” from Yuzhne, simultaneously getting the title of the most valuable player of the Superleague. Needham became the most productive plyer in the game “Bursaspor” – “Joventut” with his 2 points. Number 2-3 of “Bursaspor” Onuralp Bitim and a forward Yigitcan Saybir arwe the players of the Turkish National team. They played in its roster in the last EuroBasket, however had not much playing time. Bitim is the best shooter of “Bursaspor” in the ongoing season. He averages 22.5 points per match in BSL and 17.0 in the 7DAYS EuroCup. In each game the Turkish club surpassed their rivals in number of rebounds. That’s the merit of 29-year-old center from Jordan Ahmad Al-Dwairi, his colleague from the USA Zach August and one more American legionary David Dudzinski. August and Al-Dwairi have already recorded in their assets two double-double each, furthermore, Al-Dwairi made them in the last two very important matches of his team with “Joventut” and “Anadolu Efes”. In the last confrontation with the winner of the Euroleague a 28-year-old American point guard Anthony Clemmonce stood out with his productiveness of 24points.
Needless to say, an extremely difficult confrontation awaits “Prometey”. The team is approaching it on the background of the sensitive defeat from Italian “Brescia”. Turning back to the events of that game, Ronen Ginzburg noted: ”Nothing worked in that game. In the first half, we played OK , but our defense was very bad. In the offense we had problems with their pressure. We worked on it this week, hope we solve it”. “Prometey” fans are also in hope, that the upcoming match will be more successful for the team than the previous one, and they will be able to gain a victory over one of the favourites of the 7DAYS EuroCup. To follow the course of events in the match “Prometey” – “Frutti Extra Bursaspor” watch a video broadcast on October 26 on YouTube channel “DIVISPORT BASKETBALL”, starting at 19:00.
