By Lefteris Moutis
The last games of final four quartet had intensity, good defenses, stars who “cleaned up”-almost- alone, talented players who triumphed and one common: four wins for the Eurolegue teams.
With landmark defense once again and dedication to the post game -Ndong dominated- Barcelona won Zaragoza comfortably (68-49) in a game that Navarro, Huertas (scored 5 points each) haven’t made so many shots and Lorbek, Eidson had low percentages (4/13 and 3/11 shots, respectively).
CSKA Moscow had in superb condition the upcoming Euroleague MVP, Andrei Kirilenko and dominated over Spartak St. Petersburg’s (88-78) of Eurocup’s MVP, Patrick Beverly.
In a thrilling match at Nea Smyrni, where fans of Panionios threw stones, bottles and marbles into the court and took off 30 minutes to evacuate partially the seats, Panathinaikos won 82-81 thanks to Batiste’s – nearly- buzzer beater after Diamantidis assist. Olympiakos won 85-60 Kavala last Thursday after a very good game of young guns Papanikolau and Sloukas.
CAI Zaragoza-Barcelona Regal 49-68
CAI ZARAGOZA: Cabezas 6, Stefansson 13, Wright 5, Hettsheimeir 2, Fontet 7, Van Rossom 5(1), Toppert, Rhodes 11(1), Archibald, Almazan.
BARÇELONA REGAL: Huertas 5(1), Eidson 6, Ingles 7(2), Wallace 4, Ndong 17 (8/10 2p., 9 reb.), Sada 3, Navarro 5(1), Perovic, Vázquez 4, Rabaseda 8, Lorbek 9(1).
Spartak St. Petersburg-CSKA Moscow 78-88
SPARTAK ST. PETERSBURG: Zavoruev, Kashirov 4, Halperin 12 (1 ep., 6 as., 4 st.), Lihodey 11 (1), Beverley 18 (1 3p., 5 as.), Zupan 3(1), Zozulin 3(1), Dragicevic 9, Keyru 16 (1), Dragovic 2.
CSKA MOSCOW: Teodosic 14 (1 3p., 9 as.), Lavrinovic, Krstic 15, Voronov 6, Vorontsevich 2, Shved 10 (2 3p., 6 as.), Kaun 5, Khryapa 8 (11 reb., 7 as.), Gordon 1, Kirilenko 27 (8/10 2p., 11 reb.).
Panionios-Panathinaikos 81-82
PANIONIOS: Xanthopoulos 10(1), Keys 11(1), Athanasoulas, Steveson 7, Diebler 11(3), Kavadas 8, Ioannou 5(1), Sarikopoulos 3, Nadfeji 9, Paragios 3(1), Barlos 14 (4/4 3p.).
PANATHINAIKOS: Perperoglou 15(1), Bateiste 11, Logan 4, Sato 7(1), Tsartsaris 2, Diamantidis 14(2/3 3p, 6 as.), Vougioukas 9 (6 reb.), Calathes 4, Smith, Kaimakoglou 6 (8 reb.), Jasikevicius 10(1).
Olympiacos-Kavala 85-60
OLYMPIACOS: Hines 9, Antic 4 (6 reb.), Spanoulis 3, Keselj 3(1), Pelekanos 2, Gecevicius 5(1), Glyniadakis, Printezis 12, Papanikolau 22 (5./6 2p., 2/3 3p., 20 reb.), Mantzaris 5 (1 3p, 5 as.), Sloukas 16 (3/3 2p, 2/2 3p, 6 as.), Katsivelis.
KAVALA: Pasalic, Georgiev 3(1), Arapis, Aggelopoulos 10(2), Damianovic 14, Taylor 12(1), Stefanidis 6, Gerorgakis 3, Kostov 3, Karapostolou 5(1), Symtsak 4.