BCL Final 8, Preview: Nymburk vs AEK

The third quarterfinal of the BCL Final Eight will see Nymburk face AEK at 17:30 CET.

Nymburk roster: http://www.championsleague.basketball/19-20/team/CEZ-Nymburk#|tab=roster

AEK roster: http://www.championsleague.basketball/19-20/team/AEK#|tab=roster

Coaches’ Quotes

Oren Amiel – Nymburk:

"We are very excited and looking forward to playing tonight.

Character manifests in the great moments – but it is built in the small ones. We made a lot of sacrifices without the families and on the court, so winning the Coach of the Season award was not only for me but for all the people who worked with me, my assistants. Plus, the fact that came from my colleagues makes it even bigger. I really appreciate it, and thank you to all the coaches.

We faced AEK many times, but I don’t have in the back of my mind previous games. It’s all different – players, coach – so there’s not really much to look back to.

We recruit players that fit our system. You need to improve and change according to the situation, but you also need to have principles you trust and believe in."

Ilias Papatheodorou – AEK

"I would like to congratulate the BCL for giving us the opportunity to finish the season on the court. Good opportunity for us to play some good games and win the trophy.

We understand the pressure especially from our fans. There are great teams here, we respect everyone. Tomorrow we’ll play against Nymburk that have great concepts both in defense and in offense. We have to be mentally tough and stay calm.

It’s important to control the tempo of the game. We have talented players, but talent is not enough. We have to be mentally ready to be play one of the best defensive teams.

We had a short period to prepare for this event, nonetheless we worked on little details to play against them and we’ll see tomorrow how it plays out.

Slaughter will be with us, he practiced with us in the last week so he will help us today."

Captains’ Quotes

Vojtech Hruban (ERA Nymburk)

"We are very happy to be here, this is the first time in a long time for a Czech team to be in a competition like this. We want to give ourselves a chance to show that we belong here and that this is not the last time we appear here"

Nikos Zisis (AEK)

"We live in an unprecedented situation with COVID, so to be able to play and compete in a high-level tournament is a very big opportunity for all of us. It feels nice to play this tournament at home, it would be perfect to play in front of our fans, but this is how the situation is".

Facts and stats

– ERA Nymburk and AEK have already faced each other four times in the BCL, the Czech side winning their first encounter in March 2018 but AEK winning their most recent three meetings.

– ERA Nymburk have won their last nine games in the BCL, best current run. Only Monaco (14) had a longest winning run in the BCL history.

– AEK have won seven of their nine playoffs games they have played at home in the BCL, but one of their two defeats came against ERA Nymburk, 88-98 in the Round of 16 in March 2018.

– ERA Nymburk are the only team in the BCL this season to have seen their opponents scoring less than 40% of their field goals attempted (39%).

– ERA Nymburk have made 14.8 points per game on second chance situations, the most among all team in the BCL this season.

– AEK have allowed their opponents to attempt only 57.8 field goals per game in the BCL this season, less than any other team; their opponents have had 70.3 possessions per game, the fewest in the BCL in 2019-20.

– ERE Nymburk’s new signing Luka Rupnik has already played four BCL games against AEK, scoring on average 8.5 points per game; however, the only time he failed to score a single point in his 28 BCL games was during his last game away at AEK, in October 2019 with Telenet Giants Antwerp.

– Vojtech Hruban has scored 752 points in the BCL, the most of any player in the history of the competition; He has scored 17 points on average in his last three games against AEK in the BCL.

– Tyrese Rice scored 20+ points in four different games in the BCL Playoffs in 2018-19, the most for any player in the Playoffs in a single season; Rice will be making his debut with AEK in the BCL.

– Jonas Maciulis has scored 36 points against ERA Nymburk in the BCL, more than against any other team, including 21 points in October 2018, the only time he managed to score 20+ points in a BCL game.