In Israel, a cup was awarded to Hapoel Jerusalem on Thursday and tonight (Sunday) the cup finals were held across Europe, while in Greece, as expected, Olympiakos won the 11th cup in its history with a crushing 57:85 in the final over Priestri. After defeating arch-rivals Panathinaikos in the semi-finals, the formidable team from Piraeus put on a murderous defense that held their opponents to just 21 points at halftime and cruised to an easy victory. Sasha Wezenkov starred as usual with 29 points, as did Alec Peters. Mustafa Pal added 13 for the winners. Dimitris Moraitis scored 16 for the team of.. Vasilis Spanolis.
In Italy there was a big surprise when Brescia won the first cup in its history after 76:84 over the favorite Virtus Bologna. Amado Della Valle led the show with 26 points and 6 assists. John Petruselli added 13 for the winners. Virtus Bologna, who missed out on a chance to win their first trophy in 21 years, got 24 points from Marco Belinelli. Jordan Mickey added 10 and 8 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough.
They also handed out a cup in Spain and there, you’ll be surprised, it wasn’t Real Madrid or Barcelona. The reason is that Málaga, who eliminated both of them on the way to the final, beat the strong Tenerife 80:83 and won the coveted title with three wins against the three strongest teams in Spain. Tyson Carter (17) and Tyler Kalinowski (14 and 9 rebounds) led the winners. Tenerife got another performance from the wonderful veteran Marcelinho Huertes who contributed 21 points and 10 assists. Giorgi Charmandini from our team added 20, but Jaime Fernandez’s 16 wasn’t enough for Tenerife this time against the diverse and deep Malaga.