Levice from Slovakia faced off against Vilpas of Finland in a thrilling basketball encounter that ended 87-90. The game unfolded with quarter scores of 19-30, 26-18, 23-21, and 19-21. For Levice, Brooks led with 21 points and 6 rebounds, supported by Chavez with 13 points and Oams who contributed a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds. On the Vilpas side, Walker topped the scoring with 29 points, Jeffries added 26 points and 8 rebounds, and Chavis scored 15. Remarkably, Vilpas trailed 78-87 with just 2 minutes and 57 seconds remaining but managed to overturn the deficit and secure the win.
In another close contest, Fribourg from Switzerland edged past Batumi of Georgia 85-86. The quarter breakdown was 16-22, 19-22, 23-24, and 27-18. Olbery starred for Fribourg with 22 points and 8 rebounds, while Dell’Acqua and Le Meut added 16 and 15 points respectively, with Le Meut also grabbing 14 rebounds. Batumi’s key contributors included Zefir with 18 points, Ohkikidze with 17, and Howell, who posted 16 points and 8 rebounds.
Denmark’s Bakken secured an 89-78 victory over the Netherlands’ Landstede. The quarters went 22-33, 21-12, 22-16, and 24-17. Leading Bakken were Cory with 21 points, Pedersen with 10, and Bine and another Pedersen each contributing 9 points. For Landstede, Van der Wurst scored 22, Whitfield had 9 points and 8 rebounds, and Haskin added 9 points.
In a high-scoring game, Romania’s Oradea defeated Cyprus’ AEK 95-87, with quarter scores of 31-18, 13-19, 32-24, and 19-26. Osborne led Oradea with 21 points, Nichols recorded a double-double of 19 points and 12 rebounds, and Richard contributed 18 points. AEK’s top performers were Tate with 21 points and 5 assists, Durem with 19, and Varsos with 14 points.
The second round matchups are set with the following pairings under Country Representation 1: Vilpas versus Bakken and Batumi against Oradea.
Under Country Representation 2, the fixtures include VEF facing Dzikie Warszawa, Manchester taking on Breogan, Promitheas against Manisa, and Benfica playing Rasta Vechta.
