Euroleague triumphs for Reds and Greens
Olympiakos extended its perfect record in the second round of the Euroleague with a 74-68 triumph at Fenerbahce in Turkey on Friday, while Panathinaikos produced one more emphatic home win, this time over Zalgiris Kaunas with a 77-58 score.
The Reds have three wins out of three as they outplayed Fenerbahce, the team of Greece point-guard Nikos Zisis and former Panathinaikos coach Zeljko Obradovic.
Olympiakos showed more confidence and determination in key parts of the game, such as the end of each half: It overturned Fener’s Q1 lead of 22-16 to advance 43-36 at half-time, and came back from 68-65 down to score nine unanswered points at the end of the game, including a decisive Vassilis Spanoulis triple.
Matt Lojeski scored 18 points to eclipse Spanoulis’s 16.
In Athens Panathinaikos welcomed back its former star Sarunas Jasikevicius, who is now the assistant coach of Zalgiris, but left the Lithuanians no chance through an impressive defensive performance and a great all-around effort by the Greeks.
The host stormed into the game advancing by up to 13 points, and responded to Zalgiris’s good spell that shortened the distance to six (39-33) with a good finish to the first half (46-33).
In the second half the Greek champion ran away with the game, reducing it to an opportunity for some new faces to feature on the court.
Panathinaikos had six players score at least 10 points each, led by Nikos Pappas with 14 and James Gist with 13.
That was the second win for the Greens in three games in the top-16.
On Wednesday PAOK performed a second impressive comeback in four days to beat Italy’s Cantu 78-77 for the Eurocup in Thessaloniki.
