Frey leads the way as Bilbao enters Europe cup

Surne Basket put up a dominant display against Neptunas Klapeida on Friday night winning 95-59, securing a spot in this year’s Europe Cup. Norwegian guard Harald Frey showed up big, contrubuting with clutch threes and impressive efficiency. Bilbaos latest addition led the game in scoring. He finsinhed the game with 19 points, including 5 threes, while dishing out 5 assists.

Slow start for Bilbao

Bilbao got of to a slow start and were having troulble finding rythm in their offense, kept alive only by the shooting of Kristian Kullamae. In the end of the first quarter the Lithuanians went on a 10-0 run. At the start of second quarter, it was Frey who displayed most composure and started draining threes. Bilbao went on a 17-0 run and won every reamining quarter.

Nordic players continue to impress

With the signing of Frey, Bilbao has become somewhat of a colony for nordic players. Estonian guard Kristian Kullamae started alongside Frey at the back court and contributed with 15 points and 3 assists. While Melwin Pantzar (11, 1 and 3) came of the bench. Icelandic center Tryggvi Hlinasson (8,5,2) also playerd in the game. Prolific signing Zoran Dragic, was looking like his old selph, also scored 13 points with good effiency on 5 of 7 shooting.

Securing a spot in Europe

Surne Bilbao won the first leg against the Lithuanians by 66-74. Coach Jaume Ponsarnau felt “satisfied” with his teams performances, securing a ticket to European competition.

“We are in Europe”, he said to Diario AS, also making it clear that the goal is to win the tournament. “We still got to know who our opponents will be, but we want to win”

He also gave praise to guards Pantzar and Frey and their solid performances during the two clashes, as well as big men Tryggvi Hlinason and Marwin Jones.

Next up for Bilbao is Breogán as the team make their ACB season debut next sunday.