EUROCUP 98-99
GROUP E

1st round (22/09/98)
Marc Körmend - Tofas Bursa 83-72 (McClendon 24, Scott 18, Bondarenko 17, Zsebe 11 - Rivers 30, Rogers 17, Rimac 16)
A fantastic performance by Marc Kormend!
Charleroi - Bosna Sarajevo 65-63 (Ellis 25, Morton 14, Desy 8, Stas 8, Beeuwsaert 4, Weatherspoon 4, Marion 2, Buja -)
Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius - Hapoel Jerusalem 73-89 (Jaskuvicius 17, Giedaritis 14, Mikalajunas 14, Kurtinaitis 11, Spronov 6, Kazlauskas 4, Dimocius 4, Palsis 3 - Waldman 20, Curcic 20, Hamilton 17, Karver 7, Turgeman 7, Williams 6, Shefa 6, Baloul 4, Katz 2)
Jerusalem just crushed the Lithuanians. All the players were good, but H Waldman was superb: 20 pts.+9ass.+7 rebs. with some beutifull penetrations. Radisav Curcic is the go-to-man in rough times. But the most amazing thing is that Jerusalem actually had some very bad moments, so there are some things to improve... Will Jerusalem break Maccabi Tel-Aviv's streak of championships? Only if Waldman keeps the high ability.

2nd round (29/09/98)
Bosna Sarajevo - Tofas Bursa 50-71
Lietuvos rytas – Marc Kormend 92-84 (Giedraitis 22, Jasikevicius 16/6, Dimavicius 16 - McClendon 22, Nemeth 20/3, Scott 20/9)
The game wasn't smooth. From the very beginning "LR" scored rather quickly and led the game. The team "Marc" overcame the shock only at the end of the first period. Then "Mark" took the initiative in its hand but it was strong enough to win. The second period wasn't smooth either. The initiative went from one team to the other.
Hapoel Jerusalem - Charleroi 71-60 (Jerusalem: Curcic 16, Williams 16, Hamilton 13, Torgeman 7, Karver 7, Shefa 6, Waldman 6 - Charleroi: Ellis 13, Cleymans 13, Stas 11, Desy 7, Wheaterspoon 7, Buja 4, Morton 3, Beeuwsaert 2)
It was a game between 2 very different styles of basketball: Jerusalem tried to run every time possible, while Charleroi (coached by the excellent Italian coach, Giovani Bucci) tried to slow the game. H Waldman was not aggresive: Although he had 7 assists and 6 rebounds, he had only 6 points. With Waldman (bad day), Jerusalem had problems when Charleroi managed to slow the game down. But on the other side, Charleroi suffered from a superb deffence of Derek Hamilton on Richard Morton (only 3 points) and from an injury of David Desy, which prevented him from showing good ability. But by slowing down the game, Charleroi managed to trail by 1-7 points throughout the game, until the 31st minute, when the Belgians were overpowered by Jerusalem's better talent, and by the overwhelming power of Jerusalem under the baskets, with 37 rebounds.

3rd round (6/10/98)
Tofas - Lietuvas Vilnius 84-72 (Rivers 21, Pars 15 - Jasikevicius 20)
Bosna Sarajevo - Hapoel Jerusalem 59-61 ( - Hamilton 21, Curcic 14, Waldman 11, Williams 8, Turgeman 3, Karver 2, Shefa 2)
Marc Körmend - Charleroi 72-79 (Mc Cledon 30, Scott 21, Bondarenko 6, Szajer 6, Fodor 5, Csaplar 2, Zsebe 2 - Buja 25, Ellis 19, Desy 10, Cleymans 9, Stas 7, Morton 5, Beeuwsaert 4)
Kormend took a poor start (0:11) without any concentration on the game. Kormend closed up at 57:58 but Charleroi took back its lead. There was only one team on the court this day. Buja the young center of Charleroi had the best game of his carrier.

4th round (13/10/98)
Hapoel Jerusalem - Tofas Bursa 76-74 (Curcic 30, Williams 19, Hamilton 14, Waldman 11, Turgeman 2 - Rivers 21, Rogers 15, Rimac 10, Pars 8, Bas 8, Griffith 5, Ilmaz 4, Okur 3)
A great game for Jerusalem, and especially for Radisav Curcic, who scored 30 points against his great rival Rashard Griffith of Tofas, including the winning basket, 5 seconds to the end. Puppy Turgeman covered David Rivers, Kenny Williams took the (13) rebounds, Hamilton gave some smart moves along some stupid mistakes, and Jerusalem showed some great team-play and fighting. The real question now is that if Jerusalem can beat the $ 20,000,000 Tofas Bursa, can it beat the $ 9,000,000 Maccabi Tel Aviv?
Charleroi - Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius 55-63 (Ellis 19, Morton 12, Buja 6, Wheaterspoon 6, Stas 5, Cleymans 4, Desy 3 - Giedraitis 16, Jasikevic 12, Dimavicius 10, Palsis 7, Kurtinaitis 6, Safronov 6, Kazlauskas 2, Mikalajuna 2)
Marc Körmend - Bosna Sarajevo 76:69 (McClendon 31, Bondarenko 15, Scott 11/3 - Halimic 32/24, Leric 11, Mirkovic 9)
A game of very low standards where both teams competed in which of them can play worse than the other. Except for to players: McClendon who was the only one playing good in Marc and Halimic who scored eight 3 pointers for Bosna.

5th round (20/10/98)
Tofas – Charleroi 83-45 (Rivers 15, Rimic 15 - Morton 12, Ellis 7, Wheaterspoon 5, Stas 5, Buja 5, Cleymans 5, Desy 4, Marion 2)
It was like a training game for Tofas as Tofas played the 2nd half with young players. Young center Mehmet Okur had 6 points and 6 rebs.Asim Pars had 13. Star players Rivers,Rimac,Griffith sat on the bench in 2nd half.
Hapoel Jerusalem - Marc Körmend 89-61 (Williams 16, Baloul 14, Waldman 12, Curcic 10, Shefa 9, Hamilton 7, Katz 6, Karver 6, Turgeman 5, Tamir 4 - Scott 22, Zsebe 10, Fodor 6, McClendon 6, Bondarenko 6, Nemeth 5, Szajer 3, Csapler-Nagy 3, Graczer 1)
Hapoel Jerusalem won the game without sweating. Kenny Williams was the best player: 16 points, keeping Chad McClendon, the 2nd top-scorer in Saporta cup, on only 6 points, and taking 15 rebounds, 13 on the 1st half. The Hungarians just couldn't score, and couldn't take rebounds: Jerusaelem led in that department by 48-23. In the 2nd half coach Effi Birenboym started to give some minutes to the bench, which also showed great preformance. 7 minutes to the end, and the line-up was: Erez Katz, Doron Shefa, Mark Karver, Eli Baloul and Amit Tamir.
Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius - Bosna Sarajevo 85-84

6th round (3/11/98)
Tofas Bursa - Marc Körmend 92-57 (Rivers 7, Rogers 21, Pars 12, Rimac 8, Grifith 14, Erdogan 4, Bas 13, Enden 3, Okur 10 - McClendon 22, Zsebe 7)
A straight victory for Tofas. Kormend was playing much depressed again. This season's performance is in contrast with the traditions of Kormend both in the cup and the championship. Very likely this was the last game of Scott and Bondarenko in Kormend.
Tofas the heavily favourite in Saporta Cup started the game well and controlled through out the game.Steven rogers had 21 points for Tofas.
Bosna Sarajevo - Charleroi 65-72
Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius - Hapoel Jerusalem 79-78 (Jasikievicius 25, Kurtinaitis 16, Giedraitis 12, Dimavicius 10, Spronov 8, Kazlauskas 4, Purlys 2, Vysniauskas 2 - Waldman 24, Williams 20, Curcic 19, Karver 15)
Jerusalem's first loss in official games after 14 straight wins. A very bad game by Jerusalem. It was behind in the 1st half by 21 points. Sarunas Jasikievicius was unstoppable, with 20 points on the 1st half. But in the 2nd half Jerusalem played mad. It had an amazing 16-0 run, and came back to 71-71 42 seconds to the end, and to 79-78 6 second to the end, but Puppy Turgeman lost the opprtunity to win the game. Jerusalem's coach, Effi Birenboym, said that he is going to appeal to FIBA, because the Lithuanian cut off a few seconds from the clock at the last offense.

7th round (10/11/98)
Tofas Bursa - Bosna Sarajevo 72-60
Marc Körmend - Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius 76-80 (McClendon 26, Nemeth 19/6, Fodor 18 - Kurtinaitis 22/18, Safranov 18, Jasikevicius 15/9)
Kormend played without Madison and Dumancic. The 3 pointers decided the game, the Lithuanians scored ten 3 pointers while Kormend had only four. Kurtinaitis had six 3 pointers.
Charleroi - Hapoel Jerusalem 66-64 ( - Curcic 17, Williams 14, Hamilton 12, Waldman 10, Turgeman 8, Karver 2)
Jerusalem will probably finish 2nd in it's house. Jerusalem lost the realistic chance to be 1st, after they lost a game in which they had already led by 10 points.

8th round (17/11/98)
Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius - Tofas Bursa 66-78
Hapoel Jerusalem 78 - Bosna Sarajevo 67 (Hamilton 25, Curcic 22,Waldman 8, Baloul 8, Williams 6, Turgeman 5, Karber 4 - Hallimic 23, Leric 15, Mirkovic 13, Jaskovic 11, Bukva 3, Kurtegic 2)
Jerusalem had an amazing begining that just crushed the Bosnians: In the 1st 7 minutes, Jerusalem scored 16 points, against 0 of Sarajevo! But later Jerusalem went to sleep, and Sarajevo came back, with an amazing shooting day by Halimic (6/11 from the arc). But every time Sarajevo came back, Derek Hamilton with an outstanding game killed them in his penetrations, or Radisav Curcic saved them under the baskets.
Charleroi - Marc Körmend 95-67

9th round (8/12/98)
Tofas Bursa - Hapoel Jerusalem 84-74 (Rimac 24, Rogers 17, Griffith 14, Pars 10, Rivers 10, Bas 3, Konuk 2, Erden 2, Okur 2 - Curcic 23, Hamilton 14, Williams 12, Waldman 12, Turgeman 10, Karver 3)
In a very exciting game Bursa won Jerusalem in over-time, in a high quality game. Radisav Curcic and Derek Hamilton led Hapoel Jerusalem into a great start, but a hot hand by Slaven Rimac managed to return Tofas to the game. From then till the end it was a close game and none of the teams led by a significant differential. Jerusalem went to Curcic whenever possible, and looked great, but it suffered from a bad day by H Waldman, with 6 turnovers. On the other side, Asim Pars was good on the 2nd half. Jerusalem managed to equalise a minute to the end, 67-67. Bas missed a 3pointer 46 seconds to the end. Then Puppy Turgeman made a beautiful play: He faked a 3pointer, Steven Rogers jumped, and Turgeman passed him, and scored. 69-67 to Jerusalem. Then David Rivers made the play of the game: He took the ball to the basket, was fouled by Curcic, who fouled out. Rivers scored both free-throwes, and both teams went into over time, in which Jerusalem had no chance to win without Curcic.
Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius - Charleroi 70-76
Bosna Sarajevo - Marc Körmend 83-63

10th round (15/12/98)
Charleroi - Tofas Bursa 67-64
Marc Körmend - Hapoel Jerusalem 84-90, OT (Nemeth 23/9, Fodor 20/6, Trummer 12/12, McClendon 15 - Curcic 31, Hamilton 19, Williams 17/6, Waldman 13/9)
The game started with one minute silence in memory of Peter Andras Marc Kormend's masseur. Kormend had one player above junior age on the court most of the game. Kormend had the lead till the end of 2nd half, they were lead by Nemeth and Fodor. In the overtime Hapoel secured they victory, Kormend had a "short bench" this day.
Bosna Sarajevo - Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius 72-77