By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Many friendly preparation games were held on Saturday all around Europe. At the most important one, between two traditional powerhouses, CSKA Moscow escaped Panathinaikos (68-67) thanks to a 4 points play by Fridzon one second before the end. The Greens were leading 67-64 and they didn’t commit a foul at the last possession of CSKA. Fridzon made the three pointer and was also fouled by James Gist. He completed the 4 points play and gave the victory to his team in a game that reminded us the Eurolegue playoffs battles between the two teams! CSKA will face Aris at the final of “Nikos Galis Cup” tomorrow and Panathinaikos will play against Banvit.
We have to mention the important absences for both team. Milos Teodosic, Nando De Colo, Viktor Khryapa and Sonny Weems didn’t play for CSKA and Demarcus Nelson, DJ Slaughter and Lukas Mavrokefalidis were absents for Panathinaikos. Earlier, Aris destroyed Banvit (66-48) with Aleksander Vezenkov being the leading scorer with 25 points on 10/17 FG.
In one more interesting game ASVEL got the 80-76 victory over Barcelona. During the second period the French team made a 15-0 run which led them to 49-32 lead at halftime. Barcelona reacted, turned the game around, but JC Navarro missed the crucial three pointer (the score was 77-76). Green, Jackson and Nivins were the top scorers for the winners, while Lampe and Tomic scored in double digits for Barca.
In other Saturday games Fenerbahce defeated Darussafaka 80-67 and Khimki lost 77-72 to Neptunas.