The Strasbourg team, represented by Kurucs and led by Lukas Banki, lost to Bonn “Telekom” 66:76 (17:18, 11:23, 20:23, 18:12) at home, making the score 1-1 in the series up to two wins.
The Latvian basketball player played 19 minutes and 37 seconds, missing both two-point shots. He had two assists, three fouls, two fumbles, one interception, and a game-worst +/- of -23 and a division-worst -1 efficiency.
For the home team, Marcus Keane led the way with 20 points, but ended the game early due to five fouls.
Sebastian Herrera scored 19 points for the guests, while Michael Kesens collected 16 points, ten rebounds and five assists.
On Wednesday, Manreza’s “Baxi” represented by March Steinberg will play the second game at home. In the first match, in the repeat of last season’s final, they lost 84:91 away to “Lenovo” from Tenerife.
In another duel on Wednesday, Marek Meyer’s representative Jerusalem “Hapoel”, which is in the lead in the series with 1-0, and Athens AEK, which cannot be helped by Jānis Strēlnieks due to an injury.
The second matches of the quarterfinals will take place on April 11 and 12, and the third, if necessary, will take place on April 18 and 19.
In the quarter-finals, the winners are determined in duels up to two wins, but the season will end with the “Final Four” tournament in May. The semi-final draw will take place at the end of April in the city that will host the final four matches.
In the second group tournament, 16 teams were divided into four subgroups, with the winners of the first two places qualifying for the quarterfinals.
“Lenovo” from Tenerife beat “Baxi” with 98:87 in the final of the match between two Spanish teams last season.