Euroleague: Panathinaikos halts Efes streak

The excitement of close games was all spent on Day 1 of the Euroleague Week 9, as Day 2 provided three games, all with differences topping 13 or more. The game of the day, Panathinaikos Athens against Top 16 surprise club Anadolu Efes, ended with the Greens putting an end to Anadolu’s seven-game Top 16 winning streak with a big home win, 75:62. CSKA Moscow remained tied with Panathinaikos for the third spot in Group E with a runaway win over Alba Berlin, who drops to 1-8 on the round. The third game between Zalgiris and host Unicaja Malaga had the largest margin, as the Lithuania club won their third game in the last four, after opening the Top 16 round 1-4, by 16-points, 67:83.

GROUP E
Panathinaikos Athens – Anadolu Efes, 75:62
Panathinaikos used a late scoring run of 16 points to pull away from the No. 2 club in Group E, Anadolu Efes, and pick up win number six on the Top 16 round, 75:62. The win keeps the Greens tied with CSKA Moscow for the No. 3 spot in the group with 6-3 records, two games ahead of both Zalgiris Kaunas and Unicaja Malaga, and one down from Efes. The loss for Anadolu, combined with Real Madrid’s buzzer-beater win Thursday over Brose Baskets, moves Efes to the No. 2 spot in the group at 7-2, with Madrid leading the pack at 8-1. A key point to the 13-point difference in this contest is that it doesn’t cover the 14 points that Efes won the first match-up of the Top 16 round with, meaning that if there’s a need for a tie-break, Efes holds the advantage.

Efes got out to the early lead, and Dusko Savanovic came out shooting, dropping in 10 of his game-high 21 in the first 10 minutes of the game. The visitors built a 5:10 lead, only to have Panathinaikos cover and tie things up with a Dimitris Diamantidis triple. Anadolu got the last four of the frame to close it out up by two, 19:21.

Michael Bramos and Marcus Banks knocked down threes for the Greens to open the second quarter and get the hosts up four, 25:21. Efes countered with two lay-ups to tie it up again, then Banks drained his second three-ball in the quarter, followed by a jumper and a lay-up for the hosts,and they had a seven-point advantage, 32:25. Shortly after, Anadolu hit eight unanswered to knot the score at 34. They traded lay-ups and free throws for the last minute to head into the dressing rooms with the score even at 38.

As the second half began, the clubs went inside and scored 10 of the first 11 points on lay-ups. With the Greens up 49:47 at the mid-point of the third frame, both teams found scoring difficult for a couple of minutes, with numerous shots off the mark, but when Panathinaikos connected again, they didn’t stop until they had accumulated an eight-point lead. Efes finished the third frame scoring hitting three of four charity tosses to head into the final 10 down 56:51.

Stanko Barac split a pair of singles to open the scoring in the fourth, then dropped in a lay-up shortly after to account for five straight points in the contest (he hit the last two free throws of the third quarter). His lay-up brought Anadolu to within two, and Kerem Tunceri dropped in a jumper to knot the score at 56. Unfortunately for the visitors, that would be the last time they’d score in six minutes, while their hosts would clip off 16, to build a 72:56 advantage with just over a minute to play. Anadolu would score six of the last nine points, to bring the difference to 13, which the hosts knew wasn’t enough to win the tie-breaker, so they worked to get off two shots, but came up empty on both giving Efes the nod should things come down to it.

Roko Ukic and Diamantidis led the Greek club with 13 each, Ukic also added 9 rebounds and 5 assists, while Diamantidis dished off 5 assists of his own. Bramos and Sofoklis Schortsanitis contributed 11 each to the win.

Savanovic led the field with 21, adding 5 rebounds to his totals as well. Jordan Farmar dropped in 10 points, dished off 7 assists and hauled in 5 rebounds on the night.

CSKA Moscow – Alba Berlin, 80:65
CSKA Moscow improved their Top 16 record to 6-3 and stayed tied with Panathinaikos for the No. 3 spot in Group E with a pounding of Alba Berlin, 80:65. Alba falls to 1-8 in Top 16 play with the loss. Nenad Krstic turned in a PIR of 26 on the day and will be named Week 9 MVP.

The German club held the lead for the better part of the first quarter, but with the score sitting at 15:16 late in the first, CSKA started a scoring run that crossed into the second frame and ended after they had blown through a 20:1 scoring run to get up 32:16 with seven minutes to play in the half. After exchange baskets for the rest of the quarter, Alba ran put together a 2:9 run to cut the lead to 11, 44:33 at the break.

The guests got the first four points of the third quarter to cut the margin to seven, but CSKA ran off six unanswered to push back to 13, 50:37. Derrek Byars sank a long-ball for Berlin and Yassin Idbihi followed with a deuce to cut the advantage to eight again. For the rest of the third frame the clubs went back-and-forth between a single digit difference to a double digit, finally settling on nine points, 63:54 as they prepared to play out the final 10.

After a Dmitry Sokolov dunk to open scoring in the fourth, Byars hit another triple and then Ali Traore nailed a jumper to cut the Alba deficit to six, 65:59. Sonny Weems hit a jumper, then Theodoros Papaloukas canned a three-ball to get right back to the 11-point margin. Dashaun Wood and Byars teamed up for a pair of threes to bring Alba the closest they had been since the first quarter, 70:65, with eight minutes to play. When all was looking like it was starting to turn around for Alba, suddenly the lid went on the basket and the boys from Berlin wouldn’t score again in the fourth quarter, for a full eight minutes. CSKA closed out the game with 10 unanswered points to pick up their sixth Top 16 win and strengthen their position to advance to the quarterfinals.

Krstic was game-high with 20 points for CSKA, earning a PIR of 26, good enough to be named MVP of Week 9. The trio of Vladimir Micov, Weems, and Andrey Vorontsevich all added 10 points to the win.

Wood dropped in 11 points for Alba, while Deon Thompson, Nihad Djecdovic and Zach Morley each contributed 10 points.

Unicaja Malaga – Zalgiris Kaunas, 67:83
Zalgiris Kaunas has found it’s way back into the race for the quarters after a disastrous 1-4 start to the Top 16 that had many writing the Lithuanian club off. After turning things around and with the addition of their Week 9 win over Unicaja Malaga, Zalgiris is solidly a contender for advancement again. Their 67:83 road win over Unicaja brings the two clubs together in the standings at 4-5. The win is also important in that it means that Zalgiris wins the tie-breaker due to taking both games in the series.

Unicaja controlled the game early and got out to a 17:7 lead before Zalgiris closed the gap with a 3:9 final few minutes. The hosts got the first five of the second quarter, but an 0:10 run by Zalgiris gave the guests the momentum and at the half they held a 31:38 advantage. As the clubs exchanged winning quarters throughout, the third belonged to Malaga. Knocking down the first five of the second half to pull to within two, 36:38, Unicaja ended up outscoring 25:21 during the third 10, setting up a potential down-to-the-wire match. Zalgiris wanted nothing to do with a close game and ran off 10 unanswered early in the frame and then broke things open to get up by as many as 17, before ending the contest with a 16-point win.

Mindaugas Kuzminskas was game-high with 15 points and 8 rebounds for the guests. Oliver Lafayette added 14 points.

Krunoslav Simon led Unicaja with 13 points, Luka Zoric added 12 points and 7 rebounds, and Sergi Vidal dropped in 10.

Euroleague Group E

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Euroleague Group F

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