It promises to be a hot night of basketball, Thursday with the returns of the semi-finals of the Lotto Cup, the Cup of Belgium. Kotrijk Spurs won the outward game against Leuven Bears 85-80. Antwerp Giants held off Ostend: 81-78. High tension assured. 

Text: Raf Bastiaenssen

Photo: SportPlus Media

The surprise came from Windrose Giants Antwerp. What a clever performance it put in. Put its foot next to Ostend's for an entire game. It found its ‘Big three’ in Flowers (28 points, 8 assists), Foster (26 points, 11 on 11 free throws) and Moore (16). It also stayed focused defensively, as well as in rebound (Tumba 10). At Oostene, only Allen (18 points) was on point offensively. Before half-time, Giants kept almost constant command. After halftime, Ostend seemed to take control. At 52-58 Meeusen three-pointered to a first gap. But Giants had a response on their hands. First to 62-60, the moment coach Gjergja was sent to the dressing rooms with two technical fouls. Flowers and Foster made Giants dream at 73-62. But Ostend also still had punch through Gillet (who made his reappearance with eight points), Bratanovic (10) and Mintz (11) to strike back: from 76-66 it went to 76-76 in extremis. In the closing seconds, standout Flowers from the free-throw line gifted Giants its minibonus after all.

Everything remains possible in the semi-final between House of Talents Spurs Kortrijk and Stella Artois Leuven Bears. Already in the opening quarter, the home team had grabbed its first gap (26-15), but failed to create a deeper one. Kortrijk held a three-point festival before half-time with 11 bombs on 23 attempts. Shooters included Newman (3), Williams (2), Beran (2) and Reed (2). But Leuven held firm, set the pace and found the offensive weapons in Armstrong (12 points) and especially Bauman. Bauman counted nine points halfway through, he finished with 26! With 7 on 13 from behind the three-point arc, he kept the Bears in the lead throughout. The gap continued to hover around 10 points. At 85-76, Leuven posted the best final jump via an opportunistic Bucumi to 85-80. Reed (17) and Stergar (14) were Kortrijk's top scorers. 

One downside for Leuven: it saw Noah Freidel out with an ankle injury.