Quarterfinals start now: Donar Groningen to host SYNTAINICS MBC
- marisnoviks
- Mar 17
- 3 min read
The 2026 ENBL quarterfinals start on Tuesday, March 17, as the eighth seeded Donar Groningen host the 2025 German Cup winners SYNTAINICS MBC.
Playoff experience: both teams have qualified to the ENBL playoffs for the first time.
Donar Groningen celebrated 75th anniversary on March 8, 2026.
Two days later Donar won the Round of 16 home game against BK Opava, 103-86, and advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-3 record.
Jason Dourisseau is the 2026 ENBL Coach of the Year.
SYNTAINICS MBC defeated BK Olomoucko, 98-83, to reach the quarterfinals with a 8-1 record.
Spencer Reaves is the 2026 ENBL Most Valuable Player.
The winners of the best-of-two home and away series will advance to the Final Four where they will face the best team in a duel between Dinamo Zagreb and Manchester Basketball.
Series history: Donar Groningen (6-3) will face SYNTAINICS MBC (8-1) for the second time.
SYNTAINICS MBC defeated Donar Groningen on the Epiphany Day, 106-104.
Spencer Reaves led the hosts with 29 points on 7/16 shooting from the three point line.
Khyri Thomas scored 25 points and dished out seven assists.
Austin Luke had 23 points, 13 assists and eight rebounds for Donar.
Donar Groningen are 4-1 on the home floor after four consecutive wins over TalTech/ALEXELA, Fyllingen Lions, Alkar Sinj and BK Opava.
SYNTAINICS MBC are 3-1 on the road after wins against Fyllingen Lions, Bristol Flyers and Alkar Sinj.
National championships: Donar Groningen are 12-9 at the BNXT league.
Donar won at Den Helder, 88-86, on March 12, and then lost against Den Helder, 90-92, on March 15.
Austin Luke had 19 points and 16 assists in a win, followed by a 20 points, 11 assists performance three days later.
Damian Forrest scored 30 points in a loss.
SYNTAINICS MBC are 8-16 at the Bundesliga and recently posted their first win since Round 10 success against Braunschweig.
Weissenfels team defeated ALBA Berlin, 99-68, on March 15, behind 23 points by Spencer Reaves.
Marcus Foster posted a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Charles Callison shined with 16 points and nine assists.
Know your referees
Crew chief: Michal Kuzia (Poland) – Orlen PLK referee from 2017, FIBA referee from 2023; has worked at the Alpe Adria Cup from 2018.
Umpire 1: Tijmen Last (Netherlands) – Dutch top league referee from 2017, a four time consecutive Dutch Referee of the Year, FIBA referee from 2019.
Umpire 2: Bence Szilvagyi (United Kingdom) – Super League Basketball referee from 2023.
Observer (at the video): Oskars Lucis (Latvia).
ENBL access: follow the game on Youtube
2026 quarterfinals | local time | CET
Tuesday, March 17
19:30 | 19:30 (8) Donar Groningen – SYNTAINICS MBC (1)
Wednesday, March 18
19:00 | 19:00 (7) Dziki Warszawa – Iraklis BC (2)
Wednesday, March 25
19:00 | 20:00 (5) Manchester Basketball – Dinamo Zagreb (4)
19:30 | 19:30 (1) SYNTAINICS MBC – Donar Groningen (8)
Wednesday, April 1
19:45 | 18:45 (2) Iraklis BC – Dziki Warszawa (7)
19:30 | 19:30 (4) Dinamo Zagreb – Manchester Basketball (5)
to be confirmed
00:00 | 00:00 (11) Riga Zelli – CSO Voluntari (3)
00:00 | 00:00 (3) CSO Voluntari – Riga Zelli (11)
April 21-23, Final Four
Location and final dates to be confirmed
2026 ENBL playoffs and bracket
Live blog: the playoffs are coming
This is an exciting start to the ENBL quarterfinals! It's great to see both Donar Groningen and SYNTAINICS MBC making their playoff debuts. With SYNTAINICS MBC holding the edge and having won their previous encounter, this should be a thrilling series. For those looking to enhance their own visual content, I'd recommend checking out Free HD Photo Converter for AI-powered image upscaling.
Excited for the ENBL quarterfinals! It's great to see both Donar Groningen and SYNTAINICS MBC making their playoff debut. The previous match between them was incredibly close. For anyone looking to share game recaps or analysis online, I found the Markdown to HTML Converter website really useful for creating clean HTML. Looking forward to the action!
Exciting start to the ENBL quarterfinals! Donar Groningen hosting SYNTAINICS MBC sounds like a great matchup, especially with both teams making their playoff debut. It's interesting to see how the previous game between them plays out this time. For some fun off-court content, check out AI Cartoon Generator to create unique cartoons from photos!
Exciting quarterfinals starting with Donar Groningen hosting SYNTAINICS MBC! It's great to see both teams making their first playoff appearance. The article is well-written and easy to read, if you ever need to clean up any text, checking out AI Text Cleaner is a good idea. Looking forward to the games and the rest of the playoffs!
Exciting ENBL quarterfinals are here! It's great to see both Donar Groningen and SYNTAINICS MBC making their playoff debuts. The history between them, with SYNTAINICS MBC winning their last encounter, makes this matchup particularly intriguing. I'll be tuning in to watch! For those who appreciate detailed aesthetics, check out the Image to Pixel Art Converter for creating some cool retro graphics.