It could not climb out of the basement in the last game of the season, but Charleroi of Belgium did the next-best thing for its fans when it topped visiting Alba Berlin 100-91 in the Group A finale for both teams on Wednesday. The victory lifted Charleroi to 3-11 on the season. Alba finishes with the same record, but stays a place ahead in seventh by virtue of having won their previous meeting by 12 points. The game also marked just the third time this season that any Group A team reached 100 points, the other two being first-place candidates Olympiakos and Benetton. Ronald Ellis led five players in double figures for the winners with 30 points, and added 6 rebounds. Louis Rowe added 18, Jim Potter 16, including 4-for-4 three-pointers, John Jerome 14 and David Desy 11. The visitors got 24 points and 5 rebounds out of veteran Wendell Alexis, plus 18 and 8 from Dejan Koturovic.

Charleroi had not reached the 100-point plateau in two Euroleague seasons, nor had it had as many as three wins last year. All of which amounted to the signs of improvement that Charleroi fans were no doubt looking for. Even within the game, the Belgian League leaders improved, especially when turning a 24-28 deficit after 10 minutes to a 58-50 lead at halftime. Wtih Alexis particularly effective after the break, Alba was able to trim that deficit to 77-76 at the end of the third quarter. Charleroi started cranking out the three-pointers in the fourth. The home team ended up hitting more than four times Alba's total from downtown: 13 for 22, or 59%, for Charleroi to 3 of 9, or 33%, for Alba. That sent the local crowd out smiling for one of the few times all season, and sent Alba to its seventh straight loss, although two of them came by a point each.