Reds start Euroleague campaign with win, but Greens lose
Greek teams had a mixed start to their Euroleague campaigns this week, with Olympiakos beating Cedevita Zagreb and Panathinaikos going down at Lokomotiv Kuban.
The Reds served a home ban and were forced to host the Croatians at Iraklio, on Crete on Thursday. They won 76-61 after a solid performance in the last 15 minutes of the game, after allowing the visitors dispute their dominance in the first three periods.
Giorgos Printezis, scorer of 20 points, made up for a poor performance by Vassilis Spanoulis, who made only one out of 10 field goals on the night.
Panathinaikos challenged Lokomotiv over three quarters on Friday, leading 61-60 for the last time just before the end of Q3. The Russians, managed by Greek Giorgos Batrtzokas, outplayed the Greens in the last period with a partial 18-9 score to win 81-70.
The 15 points by Miroslav Raduljica and the 14 by Dimitris Diamantidis were not enough for Panathinaikos, that suffered its first loss in a competitive game this season.
In the Eurocup on Wednesday PAOK beat Szolnoki Olaj 72-69 at home, AEK lost 96-94 at home to Krasny Oktyabr Volgograd in overtime and Aris went down 74-71 at Trabzonspor.
