Brave road win for the Reds, victory at last for the Greens

Both Olympiakos and Panathinaikos made up for their Tuesday losses with two-point victories in hard fought matches in the Euroleague on Thursday and Friday respectively.

The Reds scored their 12th win in 19 games, beating Virtus Bologna 85-83 in Italy despite fielding a rather depleted team.

For most of the game on Thursday the Greek champion had the upper hand, but Bologna disputed that in the final quarter taking the match down to the final shot, with the Reds emerging victorious in style.

Sasha Vezenkov returned to his usual prolific performances, after a quiet game on Tuesday at Monaco, scoring 22 points, followed by an impressive Shaquielle McKissic with 21.

Panathinaikos snapped its six-game losing streak on Friday at the Olympic Sports Hall with an 88-86 triumph over Maccabi Tel Aviv, a result that has extended coach Dejan Radonjic’s stay on the Greens’ bench.

The Athens giant led 24-17 and 45-37 after the first two quarters, but a quiet spell toward the end, when it led 83-74, very nearly cost it victory again, after its loss to Fenerbahce three days earlier.

However this time a vital triple by Derrick Williams less than eight seconds from the buzzer settled the game in the hosts’ favor, for a desperately needed victory, only their seventh in 19 matches.

Paris Lee paced Panathinaikos with 21 points, with Dwayne Bacon adding 19.