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Keravnos B.C. (Greek: Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Στροβόλου «Ο Κεραυνός»), also known as Keravnos Strovolou, is a professional basketball 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. It plays its home games in the Costas Papaellinas Arena, 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 in 1966 and won its first national league 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 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. As such, it became the first Cypriot club ever to qualify for the competition.


Players


Current roster


Notable players

* Guy Pnini *
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 Page

Team presentation
at Basketball Champions League website
Team presentation
at 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