Euroleague: Zalgiris remains undefeated

Day two of Euroleague 2012-13 Round five was much more of the same as five more teams picked up road wins (10 of 12 contests this week ended in wins for the road warriors) and most of the games were won by significant margins. Of note, Zalgiris picked up their fifth win of the season to become the third team to make it through the halfway point of the campaign without a blemish and Cedevita stopped Caja Laboral at home to pick up their first Euroleague win ever.

Group C
Anadolu Efes Istanbul – Zalgiris Kaunas 64:77
Zalgiris took a 4-0 record and the top spot in Group C to Istanbul to take on Efes in a pivotal mid-season match up. The win gives Zalgiris some breathing room at the top of the standings as both Efes and Olympiacos are 3-2 after this week’s action.

The visitors used the long ball to down the Turks, shooting 13 of 26 (50%) from behind the arc, compared to Efes’ three of 15 (20%) performance from the same range. Those 30 points and the fact that Efes could only manage to shoot close to 50% inside the arc (21 of 40 – 52.5%), were the story behind the fifth ‘W’ of the season for the Lithuanians.

Marko Popovic lead the way for Zalgiris dropping in seven of 10 three-balls and tallying 21 on the day. Tremmell Darden picked up 16 points and Darjus Lavrinovic added 15 points for the visitors in the win.

Semih Erden was seven of nine from inside the arc and six of seven from the charity stripe to account for 20 points for Anadolu Efes. Jordan Farmar contribute 13 and Sinan Guler added nine.

Cedevita Zagreb – Caja Laboral Vitoria 76:69
Cedevita picked up a historic victory as they earned their first ever Euroleague win with a 76:69 decision over Caja Laboral at home.

The two squads played to a 24-all tie after the first question, but Cedevita added five points to their advantage by the end of the first half and then another seven points in the third quarter, to head into the final frame up 58:46. Caja got five back during the final 10, but it was too little, too late and they found themselves in the Euroleague history books as Cedevita’s first victim.

Cedevita put four players in double figures, led by Miro Bilan’s 16 points. Bracey Wright scored 14, Predrag Suput added 12, Mickael Gelabale played a huge role in the history making event by tallying 11 points and grabbing a game-high nine rebounds.

Group A
Union Olimpija Ljubljana – Real Madrid 76:89
Madrid kept their one game advantage over Fenerbahce and Khimki in Group A with a sound 76:89 decision over Olimpija in front of an estimated 7,500 fans in the Stozice Arena. At the halfway mark of the season, Madrid sits alone at the top of the six-team group with a 4-1 mark, while the beat-down Fenerbahce took at the hands of Cantu dropped them to 3-2 and Khimki’s win pulled them even with Turks in record, but ahead in point differential by three. Cantu is tied with Panathinaikos with a 2-3 record, but sits in fourth with a better differential.

Rudy Fernandez picked up another 18 points on the season for Real Madrid, which is just below his average of 18.2ppg. That average puts him in fourth on the scoring leader board behind Siena’s Bobby Brown (20.8), Besiktas’ Curtis Jerrells (18.6), and Bostjan Nachbar from Brose (18.6). Felipe Reyes added 16, Jaycee Carroll tallied 14, Mikola Mirotic dropped in 13, and Marcus Slaughter contributed 11.

Olimpija’s Dylan Page lead all scorers with 22 points, Jaka Blazic added 14, and Aron Baynes tallied 11.

Panathinaikos Athens – BC Khimki Moscow Region 67:79
Khimki got a big road win over Panathinaikos moving them a game ahead of the Greeks in the standings. Athens put some distance between themselves and the Russian squad by taking a 23:17 advantage after the first 10 minutes. Khimki cut the deficient in half by the end of the second quarter and knotted the score at 58 at the end of three quarters. The difference was the fourth, where the visitors outscored their hosts 9:21 to earn the ‘W’.

Khimki’s Zoran Planinic led all scorers with 18, Kresimir Loncar added 14, Paul Davis contributed 13, Petteri Kopone dropped in 12, and Vitaly Fridzon tallied 10.

Athens was led by Roko Ukic’s 13 points, Sofoklis Schortsanitis added 12, Jonas Maciulis dropped in 11.

Group B
Asseco Prokom Gdynia – Montepaschi Siena 66:101
Siena put six players in double figures, including a game and week-high 27 for current Euroleague scoring leader, Bobby Brown (20.2ppg). Brown also earned a performance index rating of 31 to come just shy of the week leader, Blake Schilb, who’s PIR for week five was 34.0. The win keeps Siena firmly in the middle of the Group B pack and in the hunt for one of the top four spots that will move on to the top 16 at the conclusion of the regular season. The lost keeps Asseco at the bottom of group B, with only one game behind Siena and Alba.

Brown’s 27 points paced the Montepaschi, Matthew Janning and David Moss contributed 16 a piece, Kristjan Kanjur added 12, and Tomas Ress and Daniel Hackett tallied 10 each.

Prokom got 15 points from Alex Acker, 13 points from Lukasz Koszarek and Adm Hrycaniuk contributed 12.

Group D
Partizan mt:s Belgrade – Brose Baskets Bamberg 72:77
In a battle of the bottom of Group D, Brose was able to climb over the qualification wall into fourth place with a come from behind 72:77 win on the road. The loss gives Partizan the unique distinction of being the only team left in the Euroleague 2012-13 campaign without a win.

Partizan built a 41:33 advantage at the half and then maintained the margin in the third. Bamberg had a huge fourth quarter, outscoring their hosts 10:22 to turn things around and earn the ‘W’.

Brose got 19 from Bostjan Nachbar, 18 from Casey Jacobsen and 13 from Sergerio Gipson in the win.

Partizan was led by efforts of Vladimir Lucic and Djordje Gagic who both dropped in 17 in the loss.