MUNICH (FIBA Europe Cup) - It wasn't a particularly joyous evening for French sides in the FIBA Europe Cup, as both Nanterre 92 and Elan Chalon suffered defeats against Telekom Baskets and Telenet Oostende in the first legs of their respective Semi-Finals.

NANTERRE 92 76-77 TELEKOM BASKETS
Telekom Baskets did what no other team in the FIBA Europe Cup managed to do this season and handed Nanterre 92 their first loss of the season at the Palais des Maurice Thorez, scoring a 77-76 victory in the first leg of the tie on the road.

Another exceptional individual display by Julian Gamble, who finished the night with a game-high 26 points and 6 rebounds, was the driving force behind Bonn's strong away performance, during which they were the leading side for nearly 30 minutes.

The team's captain Joshua Mayo also left a deep imprint on the game, knocking down four of his five total three-pointers in the third quarter en route to a 19-point and 5-assist game.

It was during the third quarter that Bonn had increased their advantage to 60-51 for a game-high 9-point lead, but baskets by Chris Warren and Spencer Butterfield got Nanterre right back in the game.

"We didn't play that poorly, but we had problems under the basket with Julian Gamble and the three-point shooting of their point guard Joshua Mayo. It was a difficult game. We had to fight for every single basket," said Nanterre guard Heiko Schaffartzik after a tough battle against his compatriots.

Nanterre relied heavily on three-point shooting throughout the evening and did so with reasonable success right until the fourth quarter, when the French club's trigger jammed and they missed seven shots from beyond the arc in a row, finishing with a 9-of-27 mark.

However, Warren and Butterfield found other ways to score and were the top scorers for the home side with 20 and 15 points, respectively.

Although only a single point separates the sides before the second leg in Germany, Nanterre will still need to win on the road in order to advance. But that will not be an easy task, given Bonn are yet to be defeated at the Telekom Dome in international play this season.

TELENET OOSTENDE 85-80 ELAN CHALON
Telenet Oostende put together a dominant performance against Elan Chalon, but will have little to show for it in the second leg in France, seeing their double-digit advantage cut to just 85-80 following a Cameron Clark-induced fourth-quarter meltdown.

Things could have been even worse for the Belgian side, but D.J. Newbill's second-opportunity basket just before the buzzer added two potentially crucial points to the victory margin after the gap had been cut to just three points by a late bucket on the other end.

36-year-old Serbian big man Rasko Katic, who finished the game with 23 points and 7 rebounds, put the hosts in the driver's seat with a 15-point first quarter and Khalid Boukichou continued Telenet Oostende's superiority inside the paint with a further 9 points in the second quarter.

However, a short slump just before the halftime break cost Oostende dearly, with Elan Chalon's swingman Axel Bouteille slicing into the gap with back-to-back three-pointers.

The game followed a similar story line in the second half. The hosts had broken away to a 14-point lead, but this time it was John Roberson and Cameron Clark who carried the offensive load and brought Elan Chalon back into the game.

Halftime. @BCOOSTENDE vs. @ELANCHALON : 44-39 #welovebco #FIBAEuropeCup pic.twitter.com/j95F61hyQU

— BC Telenet Oostende (@BCOOSTENDE) March 29, 2017

"Leading by 14 points, we made some mistakes and maybe lost some concentration on defense, allowing Clark and Roberson to score almost all of their points in the final quarter," said Dario Gjergja, the head coach of Telenet Oostende.

"Five points isn't much but it is more than what we started the game with. Elan Chalon are a top team, but tonight we showed we can compete with them and we will do so in the next game."

Clark collected a game-high 28 points and 8 rebounds, adding 4 assists, a steal and a block, while Roberson chipped in with 18 points and 5 assists.

FIBA