BNXT League: Oostende win over Feyenoord soured by Champions League exit; Donar win Dutch cup

Oostende escapes first loss in Rotterdam

Belgian league leaders Oostende are still to lose a game, and continued that run as they went to the Dutch #5, Feyenoord, for their first game outside of Belgium. In the game before, the Belgians defeated Unicaja Malaga in the Champions League, so confidence was high.

GAMEDAY! 🔥

🏆 BNXT League
🆚 Feyenoord Rotterdam
🕣 14u30
🏟 Topsportcentrum Rotterdam
📺 Live te volgen op https://t.co/TigSeJdY9p#Bnxt #heaveneleven #Wearefilou #Oneteam pic.twitter.com/YLDEdPSFpx

— FILOU Oostende (@FILOU_Oostende) March 20, 2022

As expected, they started better than the home team and Oostende took a 5-9 lead. After six minutes, Feyenoord bounced back and with a 3-pointer by CJ Jones the score was 10-11. At the end of Q1, Oostende had a gap of only two points: 19-21.

In the second quarter, Oostende showed their dominance and with a 14-2 run they extended their lead to 14 points. Feyenoord managed to fight back and at half time the Oostende lead was cut to just seven points: 36-43.

In Q3, both teams went without scoring for five minutes and Oostende looked to have cooked themselves after a strong first half. CJ Jones and Jeroen van der List of Feyenoord added some huge baskets to haul the home side to within just three points: 54-57.

In a nerve-wracking 4^th quarter, Feyenoord finally took a lead, stretching it to seven points. With just 37 seconds to go, Dusan Djordjevic sunk a 3-pointer for Oostende to make it 69-69. But Feyenoord missed their final chance and in a fast break, Oostende scored an and-1 to win the game 69-72. Champions League top-scorer Levi Randolph scored 18 points in this game for Oostende.

Despite the emphatic late win, Oostende were eliminated from the Champions League at the quarter-final stage last night by Romanian champions Cluj Napoca.

With the quarterfinals in sight, @FILOU_Oostende is eliminated from the @BasketballCL by Cluj Napoca 🏀
Read the recap & watch highlights on 👉🏾https://t.co/KsPQCe98EZ pic.twitter.com/3jZ9jp6uNl

— BNXTLeague (@BnxtLeague) March 23, 2022

High scoring percentages for Leiden and Den Bosch

On Saturday, Leiden played their first home game of the second phase against Leuven Bears. The Bears started with a win against Feyenoord last week, but Leiden were clearly a different level.

In Q1, Leuven only kept up because of  the power and influence of Nick McGlynn and Thibault Vanderhaegen. McGlynn would eventually end up with a double-double: 11 points and 10 rebounds. After Q1 the score was 25-23, and from this moment onwards it was Leiden all the way.

Great performance by Arunas MIKALAUSKAS (@ZZLEIDENBASKETB ) in #EliteGold this week-end 👀🏀⚡️ Check his game highlights on https://t.co/fU8imprBbB 👉🏻 https://t.co/7w9g4VBWoV pic.twitter.com/vXMYyEJmUU

— BNXTLeague (@BnxtLeague) March 22, 2022

Arunas Mikalauskas lead the way for Leiden with 21 points in total and at halftime their lead was already 12 points, 52-40. In Q3 and Q4 Leiden placed a 16-0 run to crush the Bears and even taking a 35-point lead in Q4. 95-66 was the final score, but most impressive was the shooting percentage of Leiden. 12 of the 21 attempts for 3-pointer went in, giving a 3P% of 57%, while for 2-pointers this was even higher with a 2P% of 69%.

Den Bosch win soured by defeat in Dutch cup final

On Thursday Heroes den Bosch played against Antwerp Giants at home. This game took place earlier in the weekend, as Den Bosch would also play the Dutch cup final against Donar on Sunday. Donar took their 7^th cup win, beating Heroes 76-71.

🎥| 𝑭𝒆𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒅𝒆 𝒌𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒅𝒌𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒓!

We geven jullie een uniek kijkje in de kleedkamer, waar het feestje nog even doorgezet werd 💪💪👇 pic.twitter.com/7dhbCXeOq0

— Donar (@Donar_Official) March 20, 2022

On Thursday Antwerp had more problems defending Den Bosch. The Giants started well with three 3-pointers, taking a 3-9 lead. There were to be the only 3-pointers they would score in Q1. In fact, across the entire game they scored just seven 3-pointers, and Den Bosch seized their chance to profit from all the missed chances.

At the end of Q1 had already taken a 24-20 lead. Den Bosch scored twice as many 3-pointers and this is where the difference was made. At halftime the difference was 10 points: 54-44. Antwerp never came close again in the second half and Den Bosch went on to win with 95-81.