Bulgarian champion Balkan suffered a heavy loss in its second match of the EuroCup group stage, losing 60:101 to Turkish giant Bahçeşehir Colleges Istanbul. Botevgrad's historic first home match in the second strongest European club tournament started with a nightmare scenario, after in the opening minutes the main player Javante McCoy was substituted due to an ankle injury.
The guests opened with a quick 9:2 run, and the first points for the hosts were scored by Alexander Stoimenov. Konstantin Toshkov, who came off the bench, tried to get the team back into the game with a long-range shot, reducing the deficit to 8:11 and later to 12:20, but the Turkish semi-finalist from last season ended the first quarter with a 24:16 lead.
The second half proved decisive for the final outcome, in which the guests completely dominated the floor at “Arena Botevgrad“. Bahçeşehir started with a 6:0 run, and their lead quickly exceeded 20 points. A three-pointer by Pavlin Ivanov brought temporary relief for the champions, but the fatal quarter ended with a score of 29:5 for the Turkish team, forming a definite 53:21 at halftime.
In the second half, the guests continued to maintain a high tempo. Although Darnell Edge made his first three-pointer, strong play from Isaiah Mike and Malakai Flynn led Bahcesehir to a 40-plus point lead at 82:41 after 30 minutes of play. In the final quarter, Balkan tried to soften the defeat with good performances from Toshkov, but Kenan Sipahi crossed the 100-point mark and Trevion Williams made the final 101:60 from the penalty line.