Greek wins over Italian visitors in Euroleague
Both Greek teams overpowered their Italian opponents at home in the Euroleague this week, as Panathinaikos saw off Armani Milano on Thursday and Olympiakos defeated Virtus Bologna on Friday.
The Greens needed overtime to overcome Milano 90-77 in Athens, having trailed for almost all of regulation.
Their fourth consecutive victory in Europe was considerably more difficult than anticipated, with the Italians leading by up to 15 points (57-42) before the Greeks staged their impressive comeback.
The 72-72 result after 40 minutes led to overtime, with the Greens riding the wave of the comeback momentum and the vocal home support to take a clear 13-point win in the end.
Dwayne Bacon and Paris Lee scored Euroleague career highs with 31 and 22 points respectively as Panathinaikos has risen from 2-6 to 6-6.
Prolific Olympiakos dismantled Virtus Bologna winning 117-71 at the Peace and Friendship Stadium in Piraeus.
The Reds ran away with it from early on, advancing 31-15 after Q1 and 61-35 at half-time, having taken heart from their league win over archrival Panathinaikos (68-66) on Monday).
Virtus Bologna was unable to match its hosts and surrendered to its high-scoring opponent that has improved its record to 8-4.
Sasha Vezenkov paced the Reds with 19 points, followed by Moustapha Fall and Alec Peters with 15 each.
