By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
Thursday night is over with Maccabi Tel Aviv, Panathinaikos, CSKA and Caja Laboral getting their wins. The Russians and the Spaniards are still unbeaten with a 3-0 record in group E and F respectively, while Brose Baskets, Besiktas and Fenerbahce/ Ulker are still stuck in a 0-3 record. Panathinaikos has a respectable 2-1, while Unicaja and Maccabi have one victory (1-2).
- Maccabi Tel Aviv in Nokia Arena has always the advantage and that was proven against Fenerbahce/ Ulker. The Israelis got their first Top16 win this season by beating the Turks 91-73. Shawn James and Ricky Hickman scored 22 and 24 points respectively, while Fener couldn’t avoid a 0-3 record, even though the game was decided in the fourth quarter with an incredible 38-25 partial score. It was a tough night for Fenerbahce, a team that was build in order to compete for the Euroleague Final Four and already has its back against the wall. Moran Roth (photo) with 8 points and 6 assists in 15 minutes was the catalyst in the win of Maccabi.
- It was a fight till the end with Panathinaikos defending its home court and beating Unicaja Malaga 78-73. Former Malaga player James Gist got his revenge against his former coach Jasmin Repesa with 17 points and 4 rebounds and he celebrated it in the face of the Croatian, specially after two crucial three pointers in the last minutes. Andy Panko who was “traded” with Gist before the start of Top16 scored 11 points for Unicaja and was welcomed by the fans in OAKA during the teams’ presentation. However the Greeks saw their leader, Dimitris Diamantidis, getting injured once again by spraining his right ankle.
- Brose Baskets and specially Bostjan Nachbar with 35 points on 6/7 three pointers did more than their best in order to upset CSKA in Moscow. However, the host team has one of the most complete rosters in the competition and that was evident with five players scoring in double digits and CSKA finally getting the 90-83 win. The Russians are still undefeated in group E despite missing their starting small forward Sonny Weems due to injury.
- Caja Laboral destroyed Besiktas and the final 77-51 score is almost flattering for the Turks who scored 7 points in the first quarter, while the host team had 27. Nothing changed during the game, Caja was always leading and Besiktas could not turn things around by shooting just 15/57 field goals and having 20 defensive rebounds against the Basques’ 22 offensive rebounds.