By Aris Barkas/ barkas@eurohoops.net
We picked as our game of the week the clash between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Bayern Munich, we didn’t see the spectacular basketball we expected, but there was a thrilling finish with the hosts getting the 66-64 win. The Germans despite trailing by double digits at the start of the last quarter, managed to get back into striking distance and had the chance to send the game to overtime, but Nihad Djedovic missed a contested two pointer with one second left at the clock. That’s how Maccabi reached a 5-1 record, against a 2-4 for the guests.
At the first game of the night, Real Madrid (5-1) got the 78-74 road win against Lokomotiv Kuban (3-3) in a more than close game. The score was 74-74 after a three pointer by Mantas Kalnietis, but was followed was a steal by Rudy Fernandez, a block by Yiannis Bourousis and two lay ups by Nikola Mirotic and Sergi Rodriguez. Real and Maccabi are still sharing the top of Group F.
At Malaga, Unicaja (3-3) after the failure in Copa Del Rey bounced back with a 87-71 win over Panathinaikos (3-3). It was a game decided in the last quarter, with a 26-14 partial score for the hosts. The duo of Ryan Toolson (20 p.) and Nic Caner Medley (21 p.) couldn’t be stopped by the guests who were missing former Unicaja player James Gist due to injury.
Olympiacos (4-2) at home proved to be more than what Anadolu Efes (2-4) could handle as the back to back champions got an easy 78-60 win thanks to their defense. After a relatively close first half – 36-29 for the Reds – the lead of the hosts picked at 23 points (60-37) before the end of the third quarter and the rest was natural for the Greeks. Olympiacos now has an one win advantage for the second place of Group E over Panathinaikos and Unicaja.
For the same group in Istanbul, Fenerbahce/ Ulker (2-4) exploded against Laboral Kutxa (1-5) with a blow out win (98-64). Despite missing Vidmar and Sipahi for the rest of the season, it was a must win game for the hosts against a team which also suffered by injuries and had only ten players available.
Finally in Kaunas, Zalgiris got its first win in Top16 this season over Partizan (89-77), however as both teams share a 1-5 record and a tone of problems, they can’t really hope for anything more than to get some morale wins on the way to elimination.