There are ten teams looking to snag one of five spots remaining in the EuroLeague regular season this year and they are playing two-games series to determine which teams advance. The teams were separated by past performance into seeded and unseeded teams and then drawn against one another. The unseeded team in each series is hosting this week while the seeded teams host the next week. Scores from both games are added up at the end of the second game to determine who advances. Either game can finish in a tie as overtime is only played if the overall score is tied at the end of the second game. Teams that lose these series drop down to EuroCup.
Two of the series tipped off on Wednesday, starting in Belgrade with Red Star trying to make the ambitious step of qualifying from Serbia. Yvonne Anderson helped them take the lead by halftime, but the more established Reyer had the stronger second half to win 79-71 as the series shifts to Italy next. Galatasaray put the game in Sfantu Gheorghe out of reach early, defeating Romanian champions Sepsi 81-48 to bring a big lead back to Turkey.
Zaragoza is hosting the final stage of the tournament again in Spain, but their hopes of participating in the event looked bad in Brno before at least cutting the margin to only 81-60 before leaving Czechia. Kibirkstis got the 75-64 win in Lithuania with an excellent return to club play from Kamile Nacickaite Van Der Horst, leaving Bourges with work to do when the action shifts to France. The last series started in Poland with Lublin making it a perfect day for unseeded teams after edging DVTK, which got a professional debut from Bella Smuda, 70-67, leaving the series very much up in the air.
September 17
https://www.fiba.basketball/en/events/euroleague-women-25-26/games/128671-CZV-REYER#boxscore
Crvena zvezda [71]: Anderson 20/8r/6a Dahan Sujic 15 Hillsman 13/6r Odom 2
Reyer Venezia [79]: Mavunga 16/9r Cubaj 15 Dojkic 12 Holmes 11/8r Santucci 8 Pan 5
https://www.fiba.basketball/en/events/euroleague-women-25-26/games/128673-SEPSI-GALA#boxscore
Sepsi Sfantu Gheorghe [48]: Meresz 13/7r Williams 12/6r Szabo 7 Davis 5/7a Diop 2
Galatasaray [81]: Juhasz 15/10r/6a Kuier 12/10r Cora 10 Smalls 6/6r/6a Gul 4 Erdogan 2
September 18
https://www.fiba.basketball/en/events/euroleague-women-25-26/games/128669-ZAB-ZARAG#boxscore
Brno [81]: Juskaite 21/7r Toure 17 Zahui B 16/6r Spanou 5 Evans 4
Zaragoza [60]: Fingall 16 Bankole 13 Hempe 10 Pueyo 6 Flores 2 Vorackova 0
https://www.fiba.basketball/en/events/euroleague-women-25-26/games/128677-KIB-TBB#boxscore
Kibirkstis [75]: Nacickaite Van Der Horst 25 Radic 11 Green 10 Dean 6/6r Virjoghe 0
Bourges [64]: Diaby 16/9r Foppossi 16 Djaldi-Tabdi 12/9r
https://www.fiba.basketball/en/events/euroleague-women-25-26/games/128675-UMCS-DVTK#boxscore
UMCS Lublin [70]: Slocum 17 Ryan 16/6r Ullmann 12 Gatling 10
DVTK [67]: Ginzo 15 Grigalauskyte 14 N. Aho 12/6a Kanyasi 10 Smuda 0
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