The Euro League 3 Finals (formerly the Challenge Cup) was the second of the two finals to be hosted in Spain, this time by CP Mideba Extremadura in Badajoz, between Friday 27th April until Sunday 29th April 2018.
The group stages of the competition saw eight teams from seven countries, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Turkey and Bosnia and Herzegovina, across two group. In group A, hosts CP Mideba Extremadura topped the table after seeing off second-placed team Italy’s ASD S. Stefano Sport, 72-43, in the opening game.
Turkish team Izmir Buyuksehir headed up Group B after defeating both Switzerland’s Les Aigles de Meyrin and Bosnia’s KKI VRBAS comfortably and edging the win, 64-60, over Italian’s SSD Santa Lucia, who finished as runners-up in the group.
The semi-finals were surprisingly low scoring affairs as Izmir matched up against Stefano and Mideba against Santa Lucia. Stefano did well to keep Izmir’s main scorer, Ahmet Efetürk quiet, and secured their place in the final with a 49-39 win. In the second semi-final, Santa Lucia overturned the unbeaten Mideba by 10 points, 61- 51, with Carlos Vera’s 24 points leading the way for Santa Lucia and assisting them to the final.
An all Italian final presented a thriller of a game as SSD Santa Lucia met ASD S. Stefano Sport. The match went right down to the wire and despite 32 points from Stefano’s Soufyane Mehiaoui it was not enough for Stefano as they let a 14 point halftime lead (20-34) slip to lose by 1 point, 57-56.
AllStar 5: Soufyane Mehiaoui (3, ASD S. Stefano Sport), Ahmet Efetürk (4, Izmir Buyuksehir), Gustavo Villafañe (1, CP Mideba Extremadura), Rafael Muiño (2, SSD Santa Lucia), Matteo Cavagnini (4.5, SSD Santa Lucia).
