Jasiel Rivero
Havana, October 20 (RHC)-- Cubans Jasiel Rivero with Spain's Valencia Basket and Karel Guzman of Romania's U Banca Transilvania Cluj Napoca got off to a good start in two of Europe's top three basketball leagues.
The Havana native Rivero scored 12 points in the victory of the Taronjas at the Fuente de San Luis Pavilion in the city of Valencia, where the locals defeated the Greek team Promitheas Patras 92-82 in the start of Group B of the Eurocup.
Jasiel scored the goals by making four two-point shots in six opportunities and with a quartet of free throws validated in six attempts. He also had an appreciable work in rebounds by capturing seven in 27:02 minutes on the court.
For the winners, the best scorer was French power forward Louis Labeyrie with 23, followed by Icelandic point guard Martin Hermansson (13), and Rivero and Spanish forward Josep Puerto, both with 12.
The hosts led the entire game with quarters of 28-24, 19-19, 22-20 and 23-19.
Thus began the Valencians a schedule that at this stage consists of 18 games for each of the 20 contestants, until April 6, 2022. Only eight teams per group will advance to the quarterfinals, which will take place on April 19, 2022.
The semifinals are scheduled for May 3, and the date of the single-match title match is yet to be announced.
In the second round of the event, Valencia will face the Montenegrin team of Buducnost VOLI Podgorica on the 27th of this month.
On the other hand, Guzmán, also from Havana and a member of the Cuban national team, has already had two successes with the Romanian club, the last one this Monday by 76-71 against the Italians of Happy Casa Brindisi, to lead the G key of the Basketball Champions League of the Old Continent.
Karel contributed eight points to that victory and before that he had four in the 66-60 win over the Turkish Darussafaka Tekfen.
The next game for the Romanian club will take place on November 3 against one of the favorites in the section, Turkey's Hapoel U-NET Holon.
Club Napoca concludes the group stage on December 22 as it seeks to qualify for the next phase among the top two. The competition has 32 teams divided into eight groups.
