Greeks begin to make their mark in Euroleague
Panathinaikos scored a precious maiden victory at Red Star Belgrade for the Euroleague, as Olympiakos added a second overcoming Zalgiris Kaunas behind closed doors at home.
In Belgrade on Thursday Panathinaikos edged out Red Star 77-75 for its first victory in this season’s Euroleague.
Indeed for the first time this season Panathinaikos appeared competitive enough to score a meaning full victory, shaking off the shock from the league loss to Aris four days earlier.
A strong second quarter for the Greens saw them outplay their hosts, having introduced more plays and ideas in offense, although they once again showed some dark spells during the game.
Lithuanian stars Marius Grigonis and Arturas Gudaitis led Panathinaikos, with 17 and 12 points respectively.
On Friday in Piraeus Olympiakos made it two out of two with a hard-fought 90-80 win over Zalgiris Kaunas in Piraeus.
Olympiakos played without its fans due to a ban carried over from last season, since the play-off series against Monaco. That played its part in the Reds having to work harder than expected for victory against the Lithuanian team.
Giannoulis Larentzakis was particularly influential for the Greek champion, as the spells of his presence raised Olympiakos’ game at the Peace and Friendship Stadium. He helped the Reds turn things around in the first half and then stretch their lead up to 12 points.
Sasha Vezenkov paced the winners with 23 points on the night, followed by Moustapha Fall with 16.
