Simon Brown and Ian Sagar were both part of the victorious RSV Lahn-Dill side that were crowned Champions Cup winners’ during a weekend which saw 14 GB internationals and the best teams in Europe go head-to-head.
The new tournament for this season, featuring clubs from Germany, Italy and Spain, saw Lahn-Dill come out on top with Brown and Sagar both helping their side to victory against Helen Freeman’s RSB Thuringia Bulls in the all-German final.
1st – RSV Lahn-Dil (Simon Brown; Ian Sagar)
Simon Brown featured in each of Lahn-Dill’s three games, scoring four points in the final which ended with Brown and Ian Sagar lifting the trophy after Lahn-Dill secured a 71:67 victory in Sunday’s final versus RSB Thuringia Bulls.
Fourteen of Sagar’s 16 points across the weekend came in Friday’s quarter-final win over BSR ACE Gran Canaria. Things could have been very different had Sagar not shown the great composure he did when sinking two free throws in the final seconds of their opening game.
With 8.6 seconds to go, Sagar lined-up behind the free-throw with the scores level at 59:59. Composed and with pinpoint accuracy, Sagar made no mistake, his two successful free throws proved decisive, with 61:59 the final result.
2nd – RSB Thuringia Bulls (Helen Freeman)
Helen Freeman helped RSB Thuringia Bulls claim second-place, coming off the bench in both their quarter-final victory over Baskets 96 Rahden and the final against RSV Lahn-Dill.
In the quarter-final, Freeman entered the action in the concluding minutes of the final quarter, helping to ensure Thuringia Bulls held onto their advantage to secure a 77:66 opening win.
During the time Freeman was on court in the final, Thuringia Bulls did close the points gap on Lahn-Dill, but Lahn-Dill went on to claim the tournament victory in what was a close final game. The two teams will meet again this weekend at the start of the best-of-three RBBL1 Championship Final.
3rd – CD Ilunion (Terry Bywater; Gregg Warburton)
Terry Bywater and Gregg Warburton both helped CD Ilunion clinch third-place as they battled to a 71:95 victory against current Division de Honor leaders Bidaideak Bilbao BSR.
Warburton scored 41 points across the weekend, including 23 points in the third-place play-off along with a game-high assists total of seven. His 23 points haul against Bilbao followed totals of eight and 10 points in the first two games against GSD Porto Torres and RSV Lahn-Dill, respectively.
Bywater scored six points in each of the two opening games, amassing seven assists and eight rebounds across the weekend.
5th – BSR Amiab Albacete (Harry Brown; Gaz Choudhry; Ben Fox; Lee Manning; Kyle Marsh)
All five of the GB internationals representing BSR Amiab Albacete played in each of the three games as Albacete ended the weekend with a 62:54 win over BSR ACE Gran Canaria to finish fifth.
Gaz Choudhry was in the top-three for both total points scored and total assists, scoring the second highest number of points with 70. 30 of his 70 points came in Albacete’s 77:79 quarter-final overtime defeat to Bidaideak Bilbao BSR on Friday.
Choudhry scored five points in the final 60 seconds of regular time to send the game into overtime and, despite scoring an additional five points in the extra period, it sadly wasn’t enough for Albacete to avoid defeat in their opening game.
It was a match that saw Kyle Marsh top the assists standings with 13 as Marsh and Choudhry both ended the weekend with a total of 29 assists, putting them joint-third in the Champions Cup assists standings. Marsh scored 18 points across the weekend.
Choudhry followed his game-leading 30 points total from the first game with two 20 points hauls against Baskets 96 Rahden and then BSR ACE Gran Canaria in the battle for fifth place.
Lee Manning led the scoring in the game against Gran Canaria with a game-high 22 points as he finished the weekend with 57 points after recording 17 and 18 points in the opening two games. Manning was third in the standings for total rebounds, collecting a total of 33 rebounds, including game-leading figures against both Rahden and Gran Canaria.
Ben Fox and Harry Brown both featured off the bench in each of the games for Albacete, with Fox totalling 12 points.
6th – BSR ACE Gran Canaria (James MacSorley)
James MacSorley recorded two points, two rebounds and one assist in BSR ACE Gran Canaria’s opening defeat to eventual winners RSV Lahn-Dill. MacSorley followed that up with four points and four rebounds in Saturday’s placement game win against GSD Porto Torres.
7th – Baskets 96 Rahden (Peter Cusack; Jake Robinson; Thomas Smith)
Jake Robinson was the highest scoring British player for Baskets 96 Rahden, scoring 24 points, as Rahden finished seventh after victory over GSD Porto Torres in the final placement game. Robinson scored 12 points against RSB Thuringia Bulls, 10 against BSR Amiab Albacete and two against GSD Porto Torres.
There was also a double-digit points total for Peter Cusack against Thuringia Bulls as he scored 10 points in the opening game, before points hauls of four and eight points, respectively, saw Cusack end the weekend with a tally of 22 points.
Thomas Smith’s highest total came in the final game against Porto Torres, when he added 12 points to the four he scored against Thuringia Bulls.
Full Stats from the 2021 Champions Cup can be viewed on the FIBA Live Stats event page.
