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The closest series of the second Eurocup qualifying round ended with Le Havre of France joining the regular season with an 83-88 road upset in Belgium of Base BC Oostende, which had won their first game by a single point. The series aggregate was 172-168 in Le Havre's favor. As such, Le Havre advanced to join Besiktas Cola Turka, BC Khimki and Benetton Treviso in Group C of the regular season. Ronald Thompson led 5 players who scored in double figures for Le Havre with 19 points. Romain Duport followed with 16, Aleksandar Bojic with 16, Bingo Merriex with 14 points and 12 rebounds, while Fabien Causeur scored 12. Bosic's go-ahead layup near the final-minute mark proved the key in a late 0-6 run that decided it for Le Havre. Oostende also had five double-figure scorers, led by Rashid Atkins with 15 points. Matt Haryasz and Nick Fazekas added 14 each, Veselin Petrovic and Devin Green 12 each for Oostende, which will play the FIBA EuroChallenge instead of the Eurocup.
Atkins and Fazekas got Oostend going before Vaselin Petrovic scored back-to-back baskets and a three-point play to send the hosts ahead 13-8 in the first quarter. Neither team could go far for long, however. Merriex kept Le Havre close until Duport's basket-plus-free throw cut the difference to 21-17 after 10 minutes. Duport and Thompson tied it for Le Havre to start the second quarter before Merriex pushed the visitors infront, 23-24, with a triple. The lead changed hands constantly after that, with the biggest cushion at 31-28 after Mike Bauer's three-point play for Oostende. But within a couple minutes, Le Havre was up again 31-32 on Causeur's layup. Again, the lead changed almost by possession until Lionel Bosco drove for a buzzer-beating layup giving Oostende a 41-39 lead at halftime.
The pattern continued after the break, with Haryasz twice putting Oostende in front by 4 points and then Petrovic returning with a triple to make it 50-45. That didn't last, either, as Duport and Thompson rallied Le Havre, the latter with a triple-and-layup combination that meant a 58-57 score midway through the third quarter. Merriex did the honor of tying with a triple before Duport sent Le Havre ahead again, 60-62. Bauer would take the lead back for Oostende, but this time Le Havre beat the buzzer with a jumper by Thompson to stay up 64-67 after 30 minutes.Merriex and Duport pushed Le Havre further in front by getting to the basket to start the final quarter. By the time Merriex scored again, the visitors were up 66-73, their biggest lead yet. While the Oostende defense tightened, Atkins put the offense on his shoulders with a pair of drives that cut the difference to 70-73 and forced a timeout. Bojic immediately sparked Le Havre with a layup, and Rimac hurt Oostende with a triple and layup to make it 72-80 with 3:40 to play. Oostende struck back with the next 6 points, split between Fazekas, Atkins and Haryasz. When Le Havre kept missing, Atkins got to the line to tie on free throws, 80-80, with 1:18 to play. Causeur saved Le Havre with a layup then, and when Haryasz missed both of his free throws with 50 seconds left, the series was truly up for grabs. Bojic made Oostende pay with a layup at 80-84 with 23 seconds left, forcing the hosts to call timeout and try to tie the series on a triple. That triple eventually came, from Ivan Paunic, but only after a turnover and 4 perfect free throws by Le Havre left too little time for Oostende to recover. The visitors had won both games in the series, and Le Havre was going to the Eurocup regular season.
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