Greens triumph at Zalgiris, Reds lose in Turkey
Panathinaikos scored its third consecutive victory in the Euroleague with an emphatic road win at Zalgiris Kaunas, while Olympiakos suffered a reverse in Turkey, going down to Anadolu Efes.
After its two home wins last week, Panathinaikos scored an 81-67 triumph at Zalgiris on Friday to improve its record to 5-6 and climb to 10th.
The Athens team built its lead early on, with a 27-11 advantage in the first quarter, and led by up to 19 (47-28) at the start of the third quarter. Zalgiris fought back to cut its arrears to four (62-58), but Panathinaikos ensured this second win away would not slip through its collective fingers.
Derrick Williams was instrumental to the Greeks’ victory scoring 25 points, while Dwayne Bacon added another 19, in the first home loss for Zalgiris this season.
Olympiakos, on the contrary, suffered an 82-71 defeat at Efes in Istanbul on Thursday, to slip to a 7-4 record.
The Greek champion wasted a very positive first half, after which it advanced 41-33, as the Turkish team kept closing the gap and increasing the pressure on the Reds that only made 30 points in the second half, i.e. as many as Efes scored in the final quarter.
Sasha Vezenkov once again paced the Piraeus team with 18 points, and Giannoulis Larentzakis scored 13.
