Greens down Karsiyaka, Reds lose in Spain
Panathinaikos scored its first Euroleague win in this campaign, downing Turkish champion Karsiyaka on Thursday, while Olympiakos lost at Laboral Kutxa in Spain on Friday for its third loss in all competitions this season.
Panathinaikos was completely dominant over Karsiyaka and won 85-73 at the Olympic Sports Hall in Athens, leading from start to finish, thanks to a double score in the first quarter (30-15).
James Gist had a career record in the Euroleague notching up 27 points for the Greeks with an amazing 2/2 free throws, 8/10 two-pointers and 3/3 three-pointers.
Before the game, one of the approximately 200 Karsiyaka fans was stabbed in the leg at an incident that took place a long way from the sports hall.
Olympiakos lost 96-89 in overtime at Vitoria, in the Basque Country, mainly due to its poor defense and the heroics performed by one of its former players: Yiannis Bourousis scored 28 points for Laboral Kutxa as well as collecting 12 rebounds.
The Reds came from 13 points down (57-44) to lead by two (70-72) before the game went to overtime (80-80), where the hosts were clearly the better team.
Matt Lojeski tried almost single-handedly to beat Laboral, with six in seven three-pointers and 28 points in total.
In the Eurocup on Wednesday Aris thrashed Buducnost Podgorica 75-57 at home, PAOK lost 76-66 at Zenit St Petersburg and AEK suffered an 89-65 reverse at Galatasaray in Turkey.
