Battle of Backbone Mountain

2023–24 European North Basketball League was the third season of the European North Basketball League, a regional basketball competition patronised by FIBA. It was won by Bakken Bears, after defeating CSO Voluntari in the final 85–81.

Teams

There were 16 teams participating from 11 countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Bulgaria, Romania and UK) and the regular season was divided into two groups. Four teams from each group advanced to play-offs.

There were new teams added to the league – Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Bulgaria, Romania and UK all debuted in this competition, while Russian and Belarusian teams were still banned, due to the ongoing 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[1][2]

1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. – positions in national championships.

Regular season
Bakken Bears (1st)	Uniclub Casino Juventus (5th)[3]	Bristol Flyers (3rd)[4]	Brno (5th)[5]
Svendborg Rabbits (5th)[6]	Šiauliai (9th)[7]	Newcastle Eagles (8th)[8]	Valmiera Glass ViA (15th)[9]
Tartu Ülikool Maks & Moorits (2nd)[10]	Enea Zastal Zielona Gora (9th)[11]	Royal Liege Basket (9th)[12]	Landstede Hammers (5th)[13]
Keila Coolbet (7th)[14]	Polski Cukier Start Lublin (13th)[15]	Spartak Pleven (5th)[16]	CSO Voluntari (5th)[17]
Hapoel Be'er Sheva-Dimona (8th)[18][19]	KB Prishtina

KB Prishtina^[20] was originally supposed to participate in this tournament, however they were excluded from the competition, due to the unfulfilled financial obligations.^[21] Hapoel Be'er Sheva withdrew due to ongoing war in Israel.

Regular season

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification		JUV	BAK	TAR	FLY	HAM	LUB	RAB	SPA
1	Uniclub Casino Juventus	7	6	1	640	536	+104	13	Advance to Playoffs		—	87–95	88–63	—	84–56	—	110–92	—
2	Bakken Bears	7	5	2	609	544	+65	12			—	—	—	—	52–56	91–98	—	87–70
3	Tartu Ülikool Maks & Moorits	7	4	3	551	529	+22	11			—	71–94	—	79–72	—	—	83–41	83–71
4	Bristol Flyers	7	4	3	581	519	+62	11			75–76	83–87	—	—	68–56	—	—	—
5	Landstede Hammers	7	4	3	502	534	−32	11			—	—	78–97	—	—	—	77–62	86–80
6	Polski Cukier Start Lublin	7	3	4	629	632	−3	10			73–103	—	85–75	85–107	91–93	—	—	—
7	Svendborg Rabbits	7	1	6	482	638	−156	8			—	79–103	—	63–86	—	62–102	—	83–77
8	Spartak Pleven	7	1	6	554	616	−62	8			82–92	—	—	73–90	—	101–95	—	—

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification		SIA	VOL	EAG	LIE	ZZG	KEI	BRN	VAL
1	Šiauliai	7	6	1	658	578	+80	13	Advance to Playoffs		—	85–77	94–92	—	—	107–79	88–70	—
2	CSO Voluntari	7	6	1	596	509	+87	13			—	—	84–76	89–68	97–77	—	—	—
3	Newcastle Eagles	7	5	2	623	589	+34	12			—	—	—	100–92	86–80	—	87–81	—
4	Royal Liege Basket	7	4	3	624	587	+37	11			74–97	—	—	—	102–79	—	—	97–68
5	Enea Zastal Zielona Gora	7	4	3	632	633	−1	11			109–83	—	—	—	—	95–91	86–74	106–100
6	Keila	7	2	5	589	636	−47	9			—	53–82	84–92	92–96	—	—	—	—
7	Brno	7	1	6	522	598	−76	8			—	72–75	—	62–95	—	73–93	—	90–74
8	Valmiera Glass ViA	7	0	7	562	676	−114	7			77–104	78–92	74–90	—	—	91–97	—	—

Playoffs

Each tie in the quarter-finals phase is played over two legs. The winning teams qualify for the Final Four tournament.

Quarterfinals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Uniclub Casino Juventus	180–182	Royal Liege Basket	84–95	96–87
CSO Voluntari	168–152	Tartu Ülikool Maks & Moorits	76–83	92–69
Bakken Bears	188–179	Newcastle Eagles	92–87	96–92(OT)
Šiauliai	174–155	Bristol Flyers	84–76	90–79

Final Four

Final Four took place in Sparekassen Danmark Basketball Center, Aarhus on April 9–10.^[22]

	Semifinals				Championship game
	9 April[23]
	Royal Liege Basket	79
					10 April[25]
	CSO Voluntari	80
					CSO Voluntari	81
	9 April[24]
					Bakken Bears	85
	Šiauliai	77
	Bakken Bears	90
					Third place game
					10 April[26]
					Royal Liege Basket	83
					Šiauliai	73

References