2002–03 FIBA Europe Champions Cup

2002–03 FIBA Europe Champions Cup
2002–03 FIBA Europe Champions Cup
Season	2002–03
Finals
Champions	Aris (1st title)
Runners-up	Prokom Trefl Sopot
Third place	Ventspils
Fourth place	Hemofarm
Final Four MVP	Will Solomon
	2003–04 →

The 2002–03 FIBA Europe Champions Cup was the 1st edition of Europe's 4th-tier level transnational competition for men's professional basketball clubs.^[1] This season, 64 teams participated in the competition. The Greek team Aris won the title, beating Prokom Trefl Sopot in the Final conducted in Alexandreio Melathron in Thessaloniki.

Teams

Country	Teams	Clubs
Greece	5	Aris	Maroussi Telestet	Panionios	PAOK	Peristeri
Portugal	5	Madeira	Oliveirense	Ovarense Aerosoles	Porto Ferpinta	Portugal Telecom
Poland	4	Gipsar Stal Ostrów	Polonia Warszawa	Prokom Trefl Sopot	Anwil Włocławek
Russia	4	Avtodor Saratov	Khimki	EvrAz	UNICS
Belgium	3	Dexia Mons-Hainaut	Euphony Liège	Quatro Bree
Bulgaria	3	Lukoil Academic	Levski Sofia	Yambolgaz-92
France	3	Dijon	Strasbourg	Nancy
Israel	3	Bnei HaSharon	Hapoel Migdal	Hapoel Tel Aviv
Israel	3	Alytus	Lietuvos rytas	Šiauliai
Bosnia and Herzegovina	2	Feal Široki	Sloboda Dita Tuzla
Croatia	2	Split CO	Zagreb
Cyprus	2	APOEL	Keravnos Keo
Czech Republic	2	Mlékárna Kunín	Opava
Estonia	2	Kalev	Tartu ÜSK Rock
Latvia	2	Skonto	Ventspils
Serbia and Montenegro	2	Hemofarm	NIS Vojvodina
Spain	2	Ourense	Tenerife
Turkey	2	Pinar Karşıyaka	Türk Telekom
Ukraine	2	Kyiv	Odessa
Austria	1	Montan Bears Kapfenberg
Belarus	1	Grodno-93
Denmark	1	Copenhagen
England	1	Birmingham Bullets
Macedonia	1	Feršped Rabotnički
Hungary	1	Atomerőmű
Italy	1	Bipop Carire Reggio Emilia
Netherlands	1	EiffelTowers Nijmegen
Slovenia	1	Geoplin Slovan
Sweden	1	Plannja
Switzerland	1	Benetton Fribourg

Competition system

64 teams from countries affiliated to FIBA Europe enter a Regional Qualifying Round (RQR), distributed in three major conferences (North, South and West) according to their geographical location. Within easch conference, the teams are further divided into groups and play a Round-robin. The final standing is based on individual wins and defeats. In case of a tie between two or more teams after this group stage, the following criteria is used to decide the final classification: 1) number of winsin one-to-one games between the teams; 2) basket average between the teams; 3) general basket average within the group.
The RQR group winners and runners-up, together with the best third-placed teams, advance to Pan-European Phase (PEP). Before the PEP phase, the group champions of the RQR Northern and Southern conferences participate in a final round to contest for the symbolic title of Conference Champion- in the case of the Northern conference, the final four doubles as NEBL championship (North European Basketball League).
The 24 teams qualified for the PEP are divided into six groups of four teams each playing a Round-robin. The group winners, together with the two best runners-up, qualify for a quartefinal play-off (x-pairings, home and away games).
The four winners of the quartefinal play-off qualify for the final stage (Final Four), played at a predetermined venue. The winner gets a wild card to participate in 2003–04 FIBA Europe League.

Conference North

The season ran from October 1, 2002 to November 5, 2002.

Key to colors
	Top two places in each group advance to PEP
	Eliminated

Group A

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff	Tie-break
1.	UNICS	10	9	1	896	724	+172
2.	Ventspils	10	7	3	914	797	+117
3.	Šiauliai	10	4	6	821	886	−65	3–1 (+28)
4.	Gipsar Stal Ostrów	10	4	6	805	837	−32	2–2 (+6)
5.	Opava	10	4	6	829	874	−45	1–3 (+24)
6.	Plannja	10	2	8	767	914	−147

Group B

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff	Tie-break
1.	Anwil Włocławek	8	8	0	666	537	+129
2.	Odessa	8	4	4	655	686	-31
3.	Copenhagen	8	3	5	586	579	+7	2–0 (+8)
4.	EvrAz	8	3	5	567	589	−22	0–2 (-8)
5.	Tartu ÜSK Rock	8	2	6	589	672	−45

Group C

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff	Tie-break
1.	Prokom Trefl Sopot	10	10	0	951	718	+233
2.	Skonto	10	7	3	975	882	+93
3.	Avtodor Saratov	10	6	4	881	903	−22
4.	Mlékárna Kunín	10	3	7	895	985	−90
5.	Grodno-93	10	2	8	764	876	−112	1–1 (+5)
6.	Alytus	10	2	8	819	921	−102	1–1 (-5)

Group D

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Lietuvos rytas	10	10	0	938	670	+268
2.	Khimki	10	6	4	875	830	+45
3.	Polonia Warszawa	10	5	5	830	847	−17
4.	Kyiv	10	4	6	859	901	−42
5.	Atomerőmű	10	3	7	770	883	−113
6.	Kalev	10	2	8	706	847	−141

Before the PEP phase, the group champions of the RQR Northern conference participate in a final round to contest for the symbolic title of Conference Champion

Semifinals

January 14, Vilnius Palace of Sports, Vilnius

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Prokom Trefl Sopot	80–114	UNICS
Lietuvos rytas	94–63	Anwil Włocławek

3rd place game

January 15, Vilnius Palace of Sports, Vilnius

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Anwil Włocławek	78–65	Prokom Trefl Sopot

Final

January 15, Vilnius Palace of Sports, Vilnius

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Lietuvos rytas	90–93	UNICS

Conference South

The season ran from October 1, 2002 to November 5, 2002.

Key to colors
	Top two places (and the best 3rd) in each group advance to PEP
	Eliminated

Group A

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff	Tie-break
1.	Peristeri	10	9	1	844	718	+126
2.	Hapoel Migdal	10	7	3	878	826	+52
3.	Yambolgaz-92	10	5	5	771	790	−19
4.	NIS Vojvodina	10	4	6	850	862	−12	1–1 (+16)
5.	Pinar Karşıyaka	10	4	6	792	815	−23	1–1 (-16)
6.	Feršped Rabotnički	10	1	9	747	871	−147

Group B

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff	Tie-break
1.	Türk Telekom	10	8	2	801	749	+52
2.	Hemofarm	10	7	3	825	726	+99	1–1 (+14)
3.	Hapoel Tel Aviv	10	7	3	806	742	+64	1–1 (-14)
4.	Panionios	10	6	4	820	799	+21
5.	Levski Sofia	10	1	9	793	872	−79	1–1 (+1)
6.	Sloboda Dita Tuzla	10	1	9	684	841	−157	1–1 (-1)

Group C

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff	Tie-break
1.	Aris	8	6	2	701	633	+68
2.	Bnei HaSharon	8	5	3	668	632	+36	1–1 (+12)
3.	Maroussi Telestet	8	5	3	731	694	+37	1–1 (-12)
4.	Split CO	8	2	6	679	752	−73	1–1 (+16)
5.	Keravnos Keo	8	2	6	567	635	−68	1–1 (-16)

Group D

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff	Tie-break
1.	Lukoil Academic	10	8	2	878	720	+158
2.	PAOK	10	7	3	858	778	+80
3.	Geoplin Slovan	10	6	4	753	705	+48
4.	Zagreb	10	4	6	783	790	−7	1–1 (+9)
5.	Feal Široki	10	4	6	772	848	−76	1–1 (-9)
6.	APOEL	10	1	9	644	847	−203

Before the PEP phase, the group champions of the RQR Southern conference participate in a final round to contest for the symbolic title of Conference Champion

Semifinals

January 16, Universiada Hall, Sofia

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Peristeri	84–86	Aris
Lukoil Academic	99–83	Türk Telekom

3rd place game

January 17, Universiada Hall, Sofia

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Türk Telekom	86–70	Peristeri

Final

January 17, Universiada Hall, Sofia

Team 1	Score	Team 2
Lukoil Academic	81–80	Aris

Conference West

The season ran from October 1, 2002 to November 5, 2002.

Key to colors
	Top two places (and the best 3rd) in each group advance to PEP
	Eliminated

Group A

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff	Tie-break
1.	Tenerife	10	9	1	804	732	+72
2.	Dijon	10	6	4	829	776	+53	2–0 (+14)
3.	Birmingham Bullets	10	6	4	746	764	−18	0–2 (-14)
4.	Dexia Mons-Hainaut	10	5	5	806	791	+15
5.	Benetton Fribourg	10	2	8	690	776	−86	2–0 (+10)
6.	Oliveirense	10	2	8	797	833	−36	0–2 (-10)

Group B

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff	Tie-break
1.	Strasbourg	10	7	3	865	818	+47
2.	Ourense	10	6	4	910	861	+49
3.	Ovarense Aerosoles	10	5	5	878	851	+27	1–1 (+13)
4.	Portugal Telecom	10	5	5	819	827	−8	1–1 (-13)
5.	Montan Bears Kapfenberg	10	4	6	871	906	−35
6.	Euphony Liège	10	3	7	799	879	−80

Group C

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff	Tie-break
1.	EiffelTowers Nijmegen	10	8	2	856	794	+62
2.	Bipop Carire Reggio Emilia	10	7	3	858	838	+20
3.	Porto Ferpinta	10	5	5	858	830	−18	2–0 (+14)
4.	Nancy	10	5	5	814	764	+50	0–2 (-14)
5.	Quatro Bree	10	3	7	770	848	−78
6.	Madeira	10	2	8	812	894	−82

Pan-European phase

The phase ran from February 2, 2003 to March 25, 2003.

Key to colors
	Advance to Quarterfinals
	Eliminated

Group A

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	UNICS	6	6	0	544	428	+116
2.	Odessa	6	3	3	522	557	−35
3.	Hapoel Migdal	6	2	4	511	525	−14
4.	Türk Telekom	6	1	5	478	545	−67

Group B

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff	Tie-break
1.	Hemofarm	6	5	1	533	457	+76
2.	Lietuvos rytas	6	3	3	494	468	+26
3.	Skonto	6	2	4	530	567	−37	1–1 (+25)
4.	PAOK	6	2	4	470	535	−65	1–1 (-25)

Group C

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff	Tie-break
1.	Prokom Trefl Sopot	6	5	1	499	463	+36
2.	Ventspils	6	3	3	531	480	+51
3.	EiffelTowers Nijmegen	6	2	4	527	544	−17	1–1 (0)
4.	Ourense	6	2	4	450	520	−70	1–1 (0)

Group D

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
1.	Dijon	4	3	1	326	305	+21
2.	Porto Ferpinta	4	2	2	300	317	−17
3.	Anwil Włocławek	4	1	3	295	299	−4

Group E

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff	Tie-break
1.	Aris	6	4	2	505	504	+1	1–1 (+8)
2.	Hapoel Tel Aviv	6	4	2	439	429	+10	1–1 (-8)
3.	Khimki	6	2	4	528	517	+11	1–1 (+14)
4.	Strasbourg	6	2	4	459	481	−22	1–1 (-14)

Group F

	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff	Tie-break
1.	Lukoil Academic	6	5	1	550	483	+67
2.	Unelco Tenerife*	6	3	3	487	467	+20
3.	Bipop Carire Reggio Emilia	6	2	4	391	445	−54	2–0 (+27)
4.	Bnei HaSharon	6	2	4	418	451	−33	0–2 (-27)

^*In 2003, Tenerife CB signed a sponsorship contract with Unelco and adopted the commercial name "Unelco Tenerife CB".

Quarterfinals

The quarterfinals were two-legged ties determined on aggregate score. The first legs was played on April 8. All return legs were played on April 15.

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Aris	158–150	Lukoil Academic	91–73	67–77
Hapoel Tel Aviv	127–138	Hemofarm	52–56	75–82
Dijon	157–177	Prokom Trefl Sopot	70–74	87–103
Ventspils	164–158	UNICS	88–79	76–79

Final Four

Semi-finals		Final

2 May

Hemofarm	66
		4 May
Aris	73
		Aris	84
2 May
		Prokom Trefl Sopot	83
Ventspils	57

Prokom Trefl Sopot	79
		Third place

		4 May

		Ventspils	91

		Hemofarm	90

References

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