Triumph Lyubertsy retained at least a share of first place at the midway point in Group E after thrashing the Antwerp Giants 88-67 on Tuesday in Russia. The hosts led from start to finish, as Egor Vyaltsev scored the game's first 7 points and Triumph finished the first period with 12 unanswered points for a 30-12 advantage. Antwerp never got within 10 after that. Ognjen Askrabic and Mire Chatman shined brightest for Triumph, which improved to 4-1 in its first season. Askrabic posted 11 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists, while Chatman scored 16 points on perfect shooting. Terrell Lyday added 14 points, Uros Slokar 13 and Igor Zamanskiy 10 for the winning side. Antwerp dropped to 1-4, thoug three of the team's remaining five games are at home, starting next week against Benetton Fribourg. Brandon Gay paced Antwerp with 14 points, David Toya had 12 and Kris Sergeant and Ian Hanavan posted 10 points apiece.

After a physical opening minute of play, Triumph caught its rhythm first as Vyaltsev scored in three consecutive possessions to gibe the hosts a 7-0 lead. Gay finally scored Antwerp's first points after nearly three minutes, but the hosts remained in total control as five different players scored during a 12-0 run to finish the period up 30-12. Toya and Sergeant saw Antwerp cut the gap to 32-21 early in the second period, however Triumph never wavered. The hosts' lead reached the 20-point mark on Chatman's triple late in the period. The lead grew to 23 before Lee Wouters made it 55-34 at halftime. Antwerp got as close as 60-44 in the third, but the game was totally one-sided by then and Triumph quickly restored a big lead, that stood at 75-56 after 30 minutes. Fedor Dmitriev gave Triumph its biggest lead, 83-58, midway through the fourth quarter on the way to a convincing win.