Keravnos B.C. (Greek: Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Στροβόλου «Ο Κεραυνός»), also known as Keravnos Strovolou, is a professional
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
club based in
Strovolos
Strovolos ( el, Στρόβολος; tr, Strovolos; hy, Ստրովոլոս) is a municipality of Nicosia District. With a population of nearly 70,000, it is the second most populated municipality in Cyprus, after Limassol, and the most populated ...
,
Nicosia
Nicosia ( ; el, Λευκωσία, Lefkosía ; tr, Lefkoşa ; hy, Նիկոսիա, romanized: ''Nikosia''; Cypriot Arabic: Nikusiya) is the largest city, capital, and seat of government of Cyprus. It is located near the centre of the Mesaor ...
,
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...
. It plays its home games in the
Costas Papaellinas Arena
Costas Papaellinas Arena is an indoor arena in Strovolos, Nicosia, Cyprus. It is the home venue of the Keravnos BC
Keravnos B.C. (Greek: Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Στροβόλου «Ο Κεραυνός»), also known as Keravn ...
, which has a capacity of 2,000 spectators.
The club’s president since 1996 is businessman
Paris C. Papaellinas
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, who has also been the main sponsor of the club for the last 20 years.
History
The men's basketball department of Keravnos was established in 1964. The club was one of the founding members of the
Cyprus Basketball Federation
The Cyprus Basketball Federation (CBF) ( Greek: Κυπριακή Ομοσπονδία Καλαθοοσφαίρισης (ΚΟΚ)) is the governing body for basketball on the island of Cyprus and is a division of the Cyprus Sport Organisation (ΚΟ ...
in 1966 and won its first
national league
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...
in 1989.
Keravnos competed for 18 consecutive years in European competitions from 1995 to 2013. The first time Keravnos B.C. took part in European competitions was in 1982, when the team played against
KK Zadar. In the 1997–98 season, just after winning their second league, the team reached the second round of a European Cup for the first time. In the Second Round, Keravnos achieved one of their greatest victories in the history of Cypriot Basketball after defeating
Žalgiris Kaunas 61–57 in Nicosia. In the second leg, they lost at Kaunas and were eliminated from the competition. Žalgiris progressed to win the European Cup that year (1998) as well as the European Championship the following year (1999), known as
Euroleague.
The year 2001 was a great one for Keravnos. The team won the Championship for a second consecutive time and also recorded the greatest success that had ever been achieved by any Cypriot sports team, in Pan-European competitions by qualifying for the quarter-finals of the European
Saporta Cup
The FIBA Saporta Cup was the name of the second-tier level European-wide professional club basketball competition, where the domestic National Cup winners, from all over Europe, played against each other. The competition was organized by FIBA E ...
. They defeated the Bosnian team
KK Borac Banja Luka, before they were eliminated by
Pamesa Valencia
Valencia Basket Club S.A.D., commonly known as Valencia Basket (), is a professional basketball team based in Valencia, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB and the EuroLeague, with home games played at the Fuente de San Luis. The club is spons ...
. During this campaign, the team had unbelievable success defeating Red star of Belgrade and Paris Basket of Tony Parker among others.
In 2004, the team qualified to the Final Four of South Conference of FIBA Europe Cup Challenge, where the team finished fourth in the competition. They qualified to the final four again the following year (2005) and this time they finished in the third position. In 2007, Keravnos again recorded a new success story. The team qualified for the final of the
EuroCup Challenge after beating in the semi-finals
Dnipro
Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...
twice in the semi-finals. Keravnos was the only Cypriot club from any sport ever to reach a major European Final. In the EuroCup Challenge Final, Keravnos faced the Russian Club from
Samara
Samara ( rus, Сама́ра, p=sɐˈmarə), known from 1935 to 1991 as Kuybyshev (; ), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara (Volga), Samara rivers, with ...
, defeating them by 85–83 at home but the score was not enough to give the team the trophy after losing in Samara 101–81 away.
After this success, Keravnos achieved three more national titles, in 2008, 2017 and 2019.
After winning the Cypriot title in 2019, Keravnos played in the qualifying rounds of the
Basketball Champions League
The Basketball Champions League (BCL) is an annual professional basketball competition for European clubs, organised by FIBA. It is the top-level competition organised by FIBA Europe, therefore the champion participates in the FIBA Intercontin ...
. The club qualified for the BCL for the first time in club history after beating
Iraklis
Gymnasticos Syllogos Iraklis ( el, Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Ηρακλής, en, Gymnastics Club Heracles), commonly referred to as Iraklis, is a Greek multi-sports club based in Thessaloniki. The club was founded in 1908 as "Mace ...
and
Donar
Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred groves ...
. As such, it became the first Cypriot club ever to qualify for the competition.
Players
Current roster
Notable players
*
Guy Pnini
Guy Pnini (Hebrew: גיא פניני) (born September 4, 1983) is an Israeli professional basketball player who currently plays for Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv of the Israeli Premier League and the EuroLeague. Standing at a height of tall, he p ...
*
Lance Blanks
A lance is a spear designed to be used by a mounted warrior or cavalry soldier (lancer). In Ancient warfare, ancient and medieval warfare, it evolved into the leading weapon in cavalry charges, and was unsuited for throwing or for repeated thru ...
*
Cedric Henderson
*
Mike King
* Mohamed Abukar
*
Kenny Barker
Honours
Men's
Domestic
*
Cyprus Basketball Division A
**Winner (8): 1988–89, 1996–97, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2007–08,
2016–17,
2018–19, 2021–22
**Runner-up (11): 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1995–96, 1997–98, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2003–04, 2008–09, 2011–12, 2017–18
*
Cyprus Men's Basketball Cup:
**Winner: (11) 1988–89, 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2009–10, 2011–12, 2018–19, 2021–22
**Runner-up: (3) 1986–87, 1987–88, 2012–13
*
Cyprus Men's Basketball Supercup:
**Winner (5): 1998, 1999, 2012, 2020, 2021
*
Cypriot Second Division
**Winners (2): 1978–79, 1987–88
European
*
FIBA EuroCup Challenge
**Runner-up (1):
2006–07
Basketball academies
Since 1987, the club is focused nearly 100% in basketball and Keravnos Basketball Academies are considered as being the most dynamic and the most professional all over the island. Currently, the Basketball Academy has over 300 members and overall with Tennis and Football reach over 750 members. Head of the Academy is Mr. Nicos Lambrias.
References
External links
Official homepage
Eurobasket.com Keravnos BC PageTeam presentationat Basketball Champions League website
Team presentationat FIBA Europe Cup website
{{FIBA Europe Cup 2022–23
Basketball teams in Cyprus
Basketball teams established in 1964
Sport in Nicosia
1926 establishments in Cyprus
Keravnos Strovolou