A big battle to reach the Eurocup Last 16 in Group F is set to take place in Treviso, Italy, where Benetton Gioco Digitale welcomes Cholet Basket on Tuesday. Benetton leads Group F with a 3-1 record and will advance to the next round if it downs Cholet. Meanwhile, Cholet will be mathematically out of the Last 16 race with a loss. Benetton edged Cholet 70-71 on a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Davor Kus when they met on opening night. Benetton will welcome newcomer KC Rivers to the lineup after the guard replaced small forward Cartier Martin. Rivers adds another scoring threat to a team that already features Kus and Gary Neal at the wings. Neal has an interesting scoring battle against Sammy Mejia, who had 35 points against Crvena Zvezda before the winter break. Rivers will have an athletic test against Mickael Gelabale and Kus is ready for a shootout against Fabien Causeur and Lithuanian scorer Arvydas Eitutavicius. Mejia and Jamaal Tatum will also have the tough mission to guard Benetton playmaker Daniel Hackett, who will try to use his size and quickness against him. Cholet relies on youngster Kevin Seraphin and rebounding ace Antywane Robinson to get an advantage in the paint, with Randal Falker helping off the bench. It will not be an easy task, however, as Benetton counts on an experienced frontline led by blue-collar big man Sandro Nicevic and rebounding machine CJ Wallace. With Andrea Renzi sidelined and Jasmin Hukic questionable - he sat out in an Italian League game this weekend - Donatas Motiejunas is expected to see extended playing time against Seraphin. Cholet must get Gelabale and Mejia involved and try to slow down the game tempo to have more options to win. Benetton must dominate the boards and expect a good game from Neal to get a critical win. Expect action, drama and intensity in Treviso on Tuesday.
REFEREES: Jose MartÃn, Nicola Lepetic, Dragan Neskovic