London Lions first GB team to reach EuroCup quarters

London Lions made history as the first British team to reach the EuroCup quarter-finals after a dominant 100-77 win over Turkey's Turk Telekom.

The British Basketball League side opened up a lead early on and never looked back at the Copper Box Arena.

Former NBA guard David Nwaba top-scored for the Lions with 19 points, while hometown centre Gabe Olaseni had 18 points and eight rebounds.

Lions now face a one-off tie at Cluj-Napoca in the play-off quarter-finals.

The Romanian side were handed a bye to the last eight after finishing second in Group B in the regular season.

Having gone out at this stage last season, the Lions were determined not suffer the same fate this time around and made a quick start in front of a vocal home crowd.

They piled on the points to lead 60-44 at half-time before their defence took over after the break, keeping Turk Telecom, from Ankara, to just 33 points in the second half and shutdown any hope of a comeback.

"Unbelievable. Everyday spent with this group is unbelievable for me," Lions coach Petar Bozic told TNT Sports.

"The guys came out ready to play. The first half was very efficient and the second half our defence was amazing.

He added: "The guys really show willingness to play together and share the ball. That's the best quality of this team."

The EuroCup regular season was split into two groups of 10 teams.

The top six teams in each group made it through to the play-offs, with the top two teams bypassing the first round of the post-season and going straight through to the quarter-finals, which will be played between 12-13 March.

Teams that finished third to sixth faced a one-off first-round tie, known as the eighth-finals.

The Lions, who are in their second season back at EuroCup level, finished third in Group A and so earned home-court advantage against Turk Telecom, who were sixth in Group B.

The semi-finals (26 March to 3 April) and finals (9-17 April) will be best-of-three-match series. The top seeds in each match will earn home-court advantage.

EuroCup is the second tier of basketball in Europe, one step below EuroLeague.