Hundreds of Turkish basketball fans will be heading to Stratford’s Copper Box Arena on Wednesday night to cheers on Beşiktaş Emlakjet Istanbul as they take on the London Lions in the EuroCup.
When these two sides met in their first leg on 15 November, it was the Lions who edged it, winning 80-83. The Black Eagles will be seeking to reverse that when they visit the 6,000 capacity Copper Box for Game Week 16 on Wednesday 24 January.
Expect an electric atmosphere for the game, where Turks may make up as many as a third of the audience. The game is being televised, but if you want to catch the action live, grab your tickets now before they all sell out. Full details below.
The EuroCup explained
Basketball’s EuroCup is European basketball’s second tier cup competition – the equivalent to football’s Europa Conference League.
Played annually, the preliminary phase of this 20-team competition is known as the Regular Season and is split into two groups, A and B, with ten teams in each.
A round-robin format is used in the Regular Season, meaning every team will play every other team in their group times twice, once at home and once away, over 18 game weeks. The bottom two from each group will then be eliminated from the EuroCup in February.
The remaining 16 clubs will be drawn in one of four groups, each with four teams that proceed to the next phase, known as the Top 16, which is another round-robin tournament.
The top two clubs from each group in the Top 16 will advance to the Playoffs, where they play a best-of-three series of games, with home advantage to the club seeded highest in the Top 16. The final in the spring.
The overall winner of the EuroCup and the runner-up will both win promotion to the EuroLeague – the sport’s premier competition in Europe.
Currently, Group A sides London Lions and Beşiktaş Emlakjet are both set to qualify for the Top 16. After 15 games, the Lions are in third place in Group A on 20 points, eight points behind the leaders Paris, who comfortably on 28, while the Black Eagles are in fifth place on 18 points.
Group A’s bottom side, Slovenia’s Olimpija, has yet to score any points in the EuroCup, while next from bottom Hamburg are on four points.
Two Turkish clubs have won the EuroCup
The EuroCup has been running since the 2002-2003 season. During that time, two Turkish clubs have won the trophy.
Galatasaray Odeabank beat Strasbourg in the final of the 2015-2016 season, and two years later, fellow Istanbul side Darüşşafaka triumphed over Russia’s Lokomotiv Kuban to lift the 2017 EuroCup.
For the last two years, Turkish sides have made it to the final of the EuroCup but ended up on the losing side. Italy’s Virtus Segafredo Bologna defeated Frutti Extra Bursaspor in 2022, while Ankara’s Türk Telekom lost to Gran Canaria last year.
Match details
Title: London Lions v Beşiktaş Istanbul
Date: Wednesday 24 January 2024
Time: 7.30pm
Duration: 180 minutes
Venue: Sports Hall, Copper Box Arena, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London E20 3HB
Travel: The nearest Overground station to the venue is Hackney Wick (5 minute walk). The nearest Underground station is Stratford (15 minute walk). The 388 bus runs every 10 minutes between Stratford bus station and Blackfriars station, and stops directly outside the Copper Box Arena (stops M & N)
Admission: prices start at £25 and go up to £130
Tickets: buy via Ticketmaster – click here.
Main image, top, L-R: Samet Yigitoglu of Besiktas Emlakjet Istanbul, and Gabriel Olaseni of the London Lions. Photos from Facebook
