By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
How the mighty might have fallen, but they didn’t. Barcelona and Real Madrid remained the leaders in groups F and E respectively having a 8-1 after flirting with disaster at home. Caja Laboral didn’t avoid the home loss to Maccabi Tel Aviv and now the two teams are tied in the 5th place of the standings in group F (4-5), while Siena (7-2) still is second and Olympiacos (6-3) is hunting the Italians.
- Brose Baskets remains win-less in Top16 after 9th gamedays and Real avoided the shock of losing at home to the Germans thanks to a last seconds three pointer by Dontaye Draper (76-73). The team from Bamberg had the lead in the half time (41-39) and retained it until the end of the third quarter (60-57), but in the end the favorite prevailed.
- The story in Barcelona was quite different with the Catalans getting the win just by 2 points against Khimki (71-69), but having also the control of the game for the larger part of it. The first half ended with the hosts having a 43-34 lead and in the last quarter the Russians launched their come back with a partial 21-11 score that it was not enough to give them the victory. Juan Carlos Navarro with 19 points was once again the top scorer of the winners.
- Former Caja Laboral player David Logan was the hero of Maccabi Tel Aviv in its road win in Vitoria (66-62). The American guard decided the outcome of the game with one three and two free throws. The hosts couldn’t score in the last two minutes and that cost them their fifth defeat in a row.
- Olympiacos didn’t had any problem in Istanbul against Besiktas as the final 79-60 proves. Former NBA champion with the Lakers Josh Powel was the top scorer of the Reds with 16 points, but that’s just a footnote in the game. The Greeks were the better team and Besiktas didn’t had a way to stop them.
- The same applies to Siena against Fenerbahce/ Ulker. The defending Italian champions needed the win in order to stay on the race for the two top spots of their group, the Turks are already focused in their domestic championship and the final 87-69 in favor of the hosts didn’t surprised anyone. The real good news for Siena is that Aleksandar Rasic had is noteworthy Euroleague game this season with 16 points on 4/4 threes.